Review of Saturday Night Fever (1977) by Caesar M — 01 Aug 2012

For better or worse Saturday Night Fever best defines the "groovy" music and fashion era of the 70s. It's also a great coming of age film with Travolta excellent dancing in ridiculous clothing makes for a good time.

Saturday Night Fever is about a Brooklyn youth who feels his only chance to get somewhere in life is as the king of the disco floor. The movie does have it share of embarrassing moments, one including Travolta and his gang waiting for one of their pal to finish his "shag" (70s slang for sex). Another embarrassing moment involves Travolta having dinner with his family and he gets into an argument with his dad because "He hits my hair". The movie itself is filled with ridiculous lines like "Can I wipe your forehead?", "Four dollars? You know what four dollars buys today? It don't even buy three dollars!", and many more bad 70s slang where when you watch this. The strange part about Saturday Night Fever is that despite its goofiness in our era it provides great entertainment and is surprisingly deep with it drama. It really catches you off guard and makes you feel about what our characters are going through. While Saturday Night Fever was made in a time when disco was popular and terms like "Can you dig it?" where use commonly it's hard not enjoy when it captures its era so perfectly for your amusement.

John Travolta does know how to "boogie" on the dance floor and this is easily one of his most enjoyable performances. The dance numbers are "far out" and "chill" (no more bad 70s slang from here on) with of course a funky soundtrack from the Bee Gees. You got to love Travolta great dance moves, I even named a dance move "The Travolta" because of his dance moves. Even the the ridiculous fashion from the era is capture well, though I will admit it does provide some unintentional laughs. The rest of the cast is are great themselves, though they are largely forgettable. There's really not much more I could say about Saturday Night Fever that hasn't already be said a million times. It's one of John Travolta most iconic roles and even more iconic for capturing the spirit of the 70s so well.

Saturday Night Fever captures the spirit and fun of its era to make one great entertaining movie. So do yourself a favor and pick up Saturday Night Fever and loose yourself in a different era.