Saturday Night Fever – 1977 Musical
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a working-class young man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano, his dance partner and eventual confidante; and Donna Pescow as Annette, Tony’s former dance partner and would-be girlfriend. While in the disco, Tony is the champion dancer. His circle of friends and weekend dancing help him to cope with the harsh realities of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his general restlessness.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”; in the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he fabricated the article.[6] A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the character who became Tony Manero was based on an English mod acquaintance of Cohn.
Saturday Night Fever was a huge commercial success. The film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TV’s Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name; he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.[7] The film showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies; haute couture styles of clothing; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; and graceful choreography. A sequel, Staying Alive, also starring Travolta was released six years later, but was panned by critics. In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Cast
John Travolta as Anthony “Tony” Manero
Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano
Barry Miller as Bobby C
Joseph Cali as Joey
Paul Pape as Double J.
Donna Pescow as Annette
Bruce Ornstein as Gus
Val Bisoglio as Frank Manero, Sr.
Julie Bovasso as Flo Manero
Martin Shakar as Frank Manero, Jr.
Lisa Peluso as Linda Manero
Sam Coppola as Dan Fusco
Denny Dillon as Doreen
Fran Drescher as ConnieMonti Rock as the DJ
Robert Costanzo as paint store customer
Ann Travolta as pizza girl (Travolta’s sister)
Helen Travolta as paint store customer (Travolta’s mother)
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