Saturday Night Fever (1977) ****

To say that Saturday Night Fever is dated is an understatement. It was dated by the 1980 and it's this expiration date that has really held the movie down to a lower standard than it really deserves. I've seen this movie close to half a dozen times and when the DJ says "I love that polyester look" I still bust out in laughter. Unintentional, yes, but it's still funny.

Getting past the polyester look and the Bee Gees soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever is about a young Brooklyn named Tony Manero (John Travolta) who is your typical twenty something working a dead end job at a hardware store and supporting his family with his wages. Of course all of this plays second fiddle to Tony whose really passion isn't paint swatches and hammers, but dancing. An example would be Paul Newman having pool in The Hustler, Tony has dancing. He thrives on it. It is his life, no matter what everyone else says.

Of course Tony's life is full of problems. His family doesn't understand him with his blown dry hair, Bruce Lee posters, and that damn polyester look. They're more concerned with his brother the priests. His friends are perpetually going to be exactly the same, cruising bars and clubs through out the non-glamorous end of the George Washington bridge. And of course there's women. Tony doesn't have a problem getting a little action, but it's one girl in particular (Karen Lynn Gorney) that Tony has to work on, not for a booty call but for a dance partner.

The thing that really sets Saturday Night Fever apart is the idea of Tony wanting to aspire to more than his life of shaking paint during the day and shaking his ass at night. He wants it. He knows dance is the way to get it, but he doesn't bludgeon everyone (including the audience) with his need to claw out of Brooklyn for the greener grass in Manhattan. You never really know what he's thinking even when he says something that can lead us to believe his true feelings. He's the classic example of the repressed Italian-American male. Don't rock the boat.

Directed by John Badham, Saturday Night Fever is probably one of the defining films of the 1970's. It's a pure time capsule that can be seen as a punchline to most with it's rainbow colored floors, Brothers Gibb sound and that polyester look. It's really much more than that. It's a basic tale of a guy that doesn't know what the hell he wants to do. It's a fine film that's been scorched into our memory because of that white suit and the arm in the air. It's a lot better than that.