Saturday Night Fever
Short description
Tony Manero works weekdays at a paint store in Brooklyn and lives for Saturday night, when he dresses in his best clothes and goes to a local disco, where his dancing makes him the centre of attention. Outside the club, his home life and his friendships are strained, and his prospects are limited. When he meets Stephanie, a young woman with ambitions beyond the neighbourhood, she makes him consider that a different life might be possible.
John Badham directed the film, the first of the fifteen features listed for him in chronological order, followed by Dracula in 1979. Norman Wexler wrote the screenplay, Robert Stigwood produced, and John Travolta leads the cast as Tony, with Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape and Donna Pescow among the credited performers. The production cost about 4 million dollars and took roughly 237 million dollars worldwide, a return far larger than its budget.
On IMDb the film holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 94,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.7 out of 10 from about 2,150 votes. A critics' rating of 7.7 out of 10 from 55 reviews places it somewhat higher than those audience scores. The Bee Gees provided the music, and Lester Wilson the choreography.
What's left behind the scenes
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Filming had to be temporarily suspended so that Travolta could attend the funeral of his then-girlfriend, Diana Highland.
- 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.
- 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 film's soundtrack sold a record 20 million copies for that time. This achievement was surpassed six years later by Michael Jackson's “Thriller”.
- Preparing for filming, Travolta ran two miles and danced for three hours every day. As a result, he lost 20 pounds.
- 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.
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