Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Timing: 1:58 (118 min)

6.729/10
2042

7.209/10
11764

6.8/10
94000

All about film

Video 3

Photo 46

Actors and characters

Release date

1977-12-16

Country

United States, United Kingdom

Production

Paramount, Robert Stigwood Organization, SNF Productions

Genre

Music, Drama

Budget

$3 000 000

Revenue

$237 113 184

Website

Director

John Badham

Actors

John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, Donna Pescow, Bruce Ornstein, Julie Bovasso, Martin Shakar, Sam Coppola
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Robert Stigwood, Kevin McCormick

Operator

Ralf D. Bode

Composer

David Shire

Artist

Audition

Editing

David Rawlins
All team (48)

• John Travolta wanted his costume to be black. However, he was informed that he would be difficult to see next to his partner in a red dress in the dark disco hall.
• Norman Wexler's screenplay was based on a magazine article by Nick Cohn, which told about the lives of young people in Brooklyn during the dawn of disco. Years later, Cohn admitted that his material, supposedly based on real events, was a complete fabrication.
• Renowned film critic Gene Siskel, who repeatedly stated that it was his favorite film, watched the movie 17 times; at one point he even owned the famous white suit worn by Travolta. This suit was sold at auction for $145,000.
• In Tony's (John Travolta) bedroom hangs a poster for “Rocky” (1976), directed by John G. Avildsen, who, incidentally, was originally slated to direct “Saturday Night Fever,” but left the project shortly before filming began due to creative differences. John Badham took over the direction at the very last moment. Interestingly, the sequel to “Fever…” – the 1983 film “Staying Alive” – was directed by the creator of “Rocky,” Sylvester Stallone.
• The scene in which Tony compares his shoe to the footwear displayed in a shop window was the only episode in the film in which Travolta's foot was 'played' by his stunt double's foot.
• Preparing for filming, Travolta ran two miles and danced for three hours every day. As a result, he lost 20 pounds.
• Filming had to be temporarily suspended so that Travolta could attend the funeral of his then-girlfriend, Diana Highland.
• Filming, which took place on the streets of New York, was frequently interrupted as young female fans began to scream when they saw Travolta, who had already gained considerable popularity after starring in the television series “Welcome Back, Kotter” (1975).
• The film's soundtrack sold a record 20 million copies for that time. This achievement was surpassed six years later by Michael Jackson's “Thriller”.
• John Travolta rehearsed the dance number to the Bee Gees song “You Should Be Dancing” for a very long time. Producers were already wanting to abandon it, but Travolta stated that he would leave the project if they did.
• David Shire's composition “Manhattan Skyline” became very popular as background instrumental music. It was often used in trailers, film clips, and movie advertisements. In the film, Stephanie dances to this melody when Tony offers her coffee.
• The film was released in late 1977 with an R rating. However, when it became clear that the film's soundtrack was very popular with teenagers, Paramount Studios decided to attract as many young viewers to theaters as possible; to this end, they shortened the film by a few minutes and released an abridged version with a milder PG rating in 1978. Subsequently, both versions were released on VHS, and only the original version was released on DVD.
• The working title of the film was “Saturday Night.” But after the Bee Gees added the song “Night Fever” to the soundtrack, the word Fever stuck to the final version of the film’s title.