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Bee Gees – Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saturday Night Fever
By Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, Link
In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard's album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—"How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever"
—along with Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", all reached No. 1 in the US. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1.
https://youtu.be/4sL9YgCBKNg?si=pmEekncvRe5Km8kL
The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2014 for being culturally significant.
Writing and recording
According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Stephanie in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song. However, representatives for Scaggs's label, Columbia Records, refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to, in turn, write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie's soundtrack.
The Bee Gees' involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs."
Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. Robin Gibb recalled:
We were recording our new album in the north of France. And we'd written about and recorded about four or five songs for the new album when Stigwood rang from LA and said, 'We're putting together this little film, low budget, called Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night. Would you have any songs on hand?', and we said, 'Look, we can't, we haven't any time to sit down and write for a film'. We didn't know what it was about.
The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. The first song they recorded was "If I Can't Have You", but their version was not used in the film.
https://youtu.be/HxvYsxf7f5s?si=f15abBbBPheaGJfq
Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
They flipped out and said these will be great. We still had no concept of the movie, except some kind of rough script that they'd brought with them ...
Maurice Gibb recalled, "We played him demo tracks of 'If I Can't Have You', 'Night Fever' and 'More Than a Woman'. He asked if we could write it more discoey."
The Brothers Gibb then wrote a song called "Saturday Night" but as Maurice explains,
There were so many songs called 'Saturday Night' even one by the Bay City Rollers, so when we rewrote it for the movie, we called it 'Stayin' Alive'.
https://youtu.be/7BKKaKT_dtM?si=Fhqql_fTF67AEd8A
The track was recorded at Criteria Studios, with Maurice Gibb playing a bass line similar to the guitar riff, Barry Gibb and Alan Kendall on guitar riffs, and Blue Weaver on synthesizers. Barry chose to sing falsetto on the whole song, except on the line "life’s going nowhere, somebody help me". Dennis Bryon, who was a backing drummer, left in the middle of the session due to the death of his mother. So the group looked for a replacement.
However, as there was a shortage of qualified drummers in the area, they tried out a drum machine, with unsatisfactory results. After listening to the drum track of the already-recorded "Night Fever", they took two bars from that track, and re-recorded them as a loop.
Commercial performance
At the time, Saturday Night Fever with Grease held the record for biggest preorders in Netherlands with 150,000 records sold.
Release
The original issue of the album included the original studio version of "Jive Talkin'"; later LP pressings included a version culled from Here at Last ... Bee Gees ... Live. All CD releases have included the original "Jive Talkin'". "Jive Talkin'" was to have been used in a deleted scene taking place the day after Tony Manero's first Saturday night at the disco, but as the sequence was cut for the final film, the song was cut as well.
https://youtu.be/XBw25CrUS-o?si=nJoKWrgbzS9epwih
In addition to the Bee Gees songs, additional incidental music was composed and adapted by David Shire. Three of Shire's cues – "Manhattan Skyline", "Night on Disco Mountain" (based on the classical piece "Night on Bald Mountain") and "Salsation" – are included on the soundtrack album as well. Five additional cues – "Tony and Stephanie", "Near the Verrazano Bridge" (both adapted from the Bee Gees' song "How Deep Is Your Love"), "Barracuda Hangout", "Death on the Bridge" and "All Night Train" – while heard in the film, remain unreleased on CD.
In 1995, the soundtrack was re-released on CD through Polydor Records. In 2006, the album was re-released on Reprise Records as part of the Bee Gees' regaining control of their master tapes.
To commemorate the movie's 40th anniversary, Capitol Records released a newly remastered version (However, CD 1 is the same remaster used for the 1995 Polydor release.) on April 21, 2017, with the original artwork and gatefold packaging.
On November 17, 2017, a deluxe box set was released with the original soundtrack, 4 new mixes of "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "How Deep Is Your Love" and "You Should Be Dancing", a collector's book, art prints, a movie poster and a turntable mat.
Along with the success of the movie, the soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees, is the second best-selling soundtrack album of all time after the soundtrack to The Bodyguard. Saturday Night Fever had a large cultural impact in the United States. The Bee Gees had originally written and recorded five of the songs used in the film – "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "How Deep Is Your Love", "More Than a Woman" (performed in the film in two different versions – one version by Tavares, and another by the Bee Gees) and "If I Can't Have You" (performed in the movie by Yvonne Elliman) as part of a regular album. They had no idea at the time they would be making a soundtrack and said that they basically lost an album in the process. Two previously released Bee Gees songs – "Jive Talkin'" and "You Should Be Dancing" – are also included on the soundtrack. Other previously released songs from the disco era round out the music in the movie. Rick Dees' single 'Disco Duck', and another song by Dees, 'Dr. Disco', both appear in the film, but are not included on the soundtrack album.
The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It is the only disco album to do so, and one of only three soundtrack albums so honored. In 2012, the album was ranked No. 132 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", ranked again in a 2020 revised list at number 163. The soundtrack hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart's Pop Album and Soul Album charts. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time, and it was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork Media listed Saturday Night Fever as the 34th best album of the 1970s.
Year-end charts Chart (1978) Position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) 1 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 1 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM) 1 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 1 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 1 Japanese Albums (Oricon) 3 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 1 UK Albums (OCC) 1 US Billboard 2001 Chart (1979) Position US Billboard 200 27 Decade-end charts Chart (1970–79) Position Japanese Albums (Oricon) 9 UK Albums (OCC) 8
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
A major critical and commercial success, Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous impact on the popular culture of the late 1970s. It helped popularize disco around the world and initiated a series of collaborations between film studios and record labels. It made Travolta, already well known from his role in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, becoming the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. The film showcases aspects of the music, dancing, and subculture surrounding the disco era, including symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute couture styles of clothing, pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide. Travolta reprised his role of Tony Manero in Staying Alive in 1983, which was panned by critics despite being successful at the box office.
In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
He lives with his parents, grandmother, and younger sister, and works at a dead-end job in a small paint store. To escape his day-to-day life, Tony goes to 2001 Odyssey, a local discotheque, where he is king of the dance floor and receives the admiration and respect he craves.
https://youtu.be/fT42ocqmI9s?si=iAQ5ixF7F2EsiMjm
Tony has four close Italian-American friends from the neighborhood: Joey, Double J, Gus, and Bobby C. A fringe member of his group of friends is Annette, a neighborhood girl who is infatuated with Tony; however, he is not attracted to her.
https://youtu.be/Acu7A1C_sP8?si=jLFOWo6K1uH5oUxH
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to clown around. The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life.
https://youtu.be/UFsoMPq25pU?si=gMsCn7ZabW9rw6Kp
Tony agrees to be Annette's partner in an upcoming dance contest, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano, whose dancing skills exceed Annette's.
https://youtu.be/o03ND9ARJSw?si=WZUQpQzkku2ws0Ym
Although Stephanie rejects Tony's advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership remains professional.
https://youtu.be/1NdbI6cFxyI?si=iYeVdBr5xe-9NxBU
Frank Jr., Tony's older brother and the pride of the family as a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents and grandmother when he tells them he has quit the priesthood. Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr., but Tony feels pleased that he is no longer the black sheep of the family. Frank Jr. tells Tony that he never wanted to be a priest and only did it to make their parents happy. He also encourages Tony to do something with his dancing.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a gang and hospitalized. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas, a Puerto Rican gang. Meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devout Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child. Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks Frank Jr. if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion. When Frank tells him such a thing would be highly unlikely, Bobby's feelings of desperation increase.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas and crash Bobby C's car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby C. runs away when a gang member tries to attack him in the car. When the group visits Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have identified the wrong gang. Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition, sharing a kiss at the end of their performance, and end up winning first prize.
https://youtu.be/5-IYCBG-Jso?si=B2zC0mPCTFzGDwUL
However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges' decision was ethnically motivated. He gives the Puerto Rican couple his trophy and award money and leaves with Stephanie. Once inside Bobby's car, Stephanie mocks Tony and tells him she was using him. Tony tries to rape Stephanie, but she resists and runs from him.
https://youtu.be/puyvR38eWLQ?si=Nx6kdEIa4YiE02J7
Tony's friends come to the car along with an intoxicated Annette. Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone. Tony tries to lead her away but is subdued by Double J and Joey and sullenly leaves with the group in the car. Annette has sex with Joey in the back seat of the car. After Joey finishes with Annette, he switches places with Double J who then proceeds to force himself on Annette as she cries, with Tony clearly uncomfortable in the front seat. Bobby C. pulls the car over on the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics. After the other three guys get out of the car, Tony insults Annette, who is clearly distraught over being raped, and implies that she was asking for it.
Instead of abstaining as usual, Bobby performs stunts more recklessly than the rest of the gang. Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down. Bobby's strong sense of despair, the situation with Pauline, and Tony's broken promise to call him earlier that day all lead to a suicidal tirade about Tony's lack of caring, before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below.
https://youtu.be/V96XZOvnsZg?si=NCmEMaaRF7c1AIhB
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony angrily storms off, leaving Double J, Joey, and Annette behind. He spends the rest of the night riding the graffiti-riddled subway into Manhattan. Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie's apartment. He apologizes for his bad behavior, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try to start a new life. Stephanie forgives Tony, and tells him that she was wrong to say she was using him, and that she danced with him because he gave her respect and moral support. Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends.
The soundtrack was released on November 15, 1977. Prior to the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history, and still ranks among the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide, with sales figures of over 40 million copies.
In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard's album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—"How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever"—along with Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", all reached No. 1 in the US. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1. The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2014 for being culturally significant.
With the exception of (*) track 12 "Jive Talkin", all of the songs are played in the film.
https://youtu.be/lcsFvdGsDhc?si=V9MSumX0p1MJjrYF
The novelty songs "Dr. Disco" and "Disco Duck", both performed by Rick Dees, are played in the film but not included on the album.
https://youtu.be/P7q6tE4k29E?si=SlwwrYSgdoIu1Mb9
According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Annette in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song.
https://youtu.be/Tsk6LRwjPMI?si=Q0or1BhxIqk6EuZM
However, representatives for Scaggs' label Columbia Records refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to in turn write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie's soundtrack.
The song "K-Jee" was used during the dance contest with the Puerto Rican couple that competed against Tony and Stephanie. Some VHS cassettes used a more traditional Latin-style song instead. The DVD restores the original recording.
Norman Wexler's screenplay was adapted from a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night". Although presented as an account of factual reporting, Cohn acknowledged in the mid-1990s that he fabricated most of the article. 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.
Development
Shortly after Cohn's article was published, British music impresario Robert Stigwood purchased the film rights and hired Cohn to adapt his own article to screen. After finishing a single screenplay draft, Cohn was replaced by Norman Wexler, who'd previously picked up Oscar nominations for Joe (1970) and Serpico (1973).
John G. Avildsen was originally hired as the film's director, but was replaced one month before principal photography by John Badham over "conceptual disagreements." Badham was a lesser-known director who, like his star, had mostly worked in television. His sole prior film credit, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, was released while Saturday Night Fever was already well into production.
https://youtu.be/mrXZ6MU6Iaw?si=Q3xtULo-J6LPRi00
The film went through several different titles, including Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night and Saturday Night. Badham chose the final title after the Bee Gees' track "Night Fever", which they submitted for the soundtrack.
Production
Casting
The film's relatively low budget ($3.5 million) meant that most of the actors were relative unknowns, many of whom were recruited from New York's theatre scene. For more than 40% of the actors it was their film debut. The only actor in the cast who was already an established name was John Travolta, thanks to his role on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
https://youtu.be/n13mlWPB6OU?si=Pppq8ve_hqJZl4VE
His performance as Tony Manero brought him critical acclaim and helped launch him into international stardom. Travolta researched the part by visiting the real 2001 Odyssey discotheque, and claimed he adopted many of the character's swaggering mannerisms from the male patrons.
https://youtu.be/MzQZod2teaI?si=xmYp_QOgfIC-j9EM
He insisted on performing his character's own dance sequences after producers suggested he be substituted by a body double, rehearsing his choreography with Lester Wilson and Deney Terrio for three hours every day, losing 20 pounds in the process.
Karen Lynn Gorney was nine years older than Travolta when she was cast as his love interest Stephanie. Although Gorney had dance experience before she was cast, she found it difficult to keep up with her co-star due to injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident some years before. After the success of Saturday Night Fever, Gorney took a break from film acting to work as a dance instructor at a performing arts academy in Brooklyn. Jessica Lange, Kathleen Quinlan, Carrie Fisher, and Amy Irving were all considered for the part before Gorney was cast.
Donna Pescow was considered almost "too pretty" by Paramount heads Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg for the role of Annette. She corrected this matter by putting on weight. She also had to relearn her native Brooklyn accent, which she had overcome while studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Filming
The film was shot entirely on-location in Brooklyn, New York. The 2001 Odyssey Disco was a real club located at 802 64th Street, which has since been demolished. The interior was modified for the film, including the addition of a $15,000 lighted floor, which was inspired by a Birmingham, Alabama establishment Badham had visited. A similar effect was achieved on the club's walls using tinfoil and Christmas lights. Since the Bee Gees were not involved in the production until after principal photography wrapped, the "Night Fever", "You Should Be Dancin'", and "More Than a Woman" sequences were shot with Stevie Wonder tracks that were later overdubbed in the sound mix. During filming, the production was harassed by local gangs over use of the location, and was even firebombed.
To try to throw off Travolta's fans who might disrupt filming, Badham and his team took to shooting exterior scenes as early in the morning as possible before people caught on – often at the crack of dawn. They would also generate fake call sheets. The tactics worked well enough that Badham was usually able to get the scenes done before significant crowds had time to gather.
Release
Theatrical
Movie poster of the PG version of Saturday Night Fever
Two theatrical versions of the film were released: the original R-rated version and an edited PG-rated version in 1979.
The R-rated version released in 1977 represented the movie's first run, and totaled 119 minutes. After the success of the first run, the film's content was re-edited into a 112-minute, toned down, PG-rated version, not only to attract a wider audience, but also to capitalize on attracting the target audience of the teenagers who were not old enough to see the film by themselves, but who made the film's soundtrack album a monster hit. The R-rated version's profanity, nudity, fight sequence, and a multiple rape scene in a car, were all de-emphasized or removed from the PG version. Numerous profanity-filled scenes were replaced with alternate takes of the same scenes, substituting milder language initially intended for the network television cut.
Paramount initially intended to release the PG-rated version of the film in 1978, as it was already being screened on airlines. However, due to the regulations set by the MPAA at the time, it was not permissible to have two versions of a film with different ratings shown concurrently in American theaters. Consequently, Paramount had to remove the film from exhibition for a period of 90 days before they could showcase the alternate rated version, thereby causing a delay in their release plans. Eventually, in 1979, the PG-rated version was made available to the public. Paramount later decided to present it as a double feature along with their other successful John Travolta film, Grease. In the A&E documentary The Inside Story: Saturday Night Fever, producer Robert Stigwood criticized the PG-rated version, stating that it undermined the film's impact and lacked the power of the original R-rated edition.
https://youtu.be/WBbrT3lVxG4?si=Rik0wpHdxvoom7sT
In 2017, the director's cut (running 122 minutes) premiered at the TCM Classic Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Fathom Events hosted special screenings of this version in 2017.
Home media
Both theatrical versions were released on VHS. The PG-rated version never had a home video release on Laserdisc. The R-rated special-edition DVD release includes most of the deleted scenes present on the PG version, as well as a director's commentary and "Behind the Music" featurettes.
On May 5, 2009, Paramount released Saturday Night Fever on Blu-ray Disc in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This release retains the R-rated version of the film, in addition to including many special features new to home media.
The 4K director's cut (122 minutes) was released on Blu-ray on May 2, 2017. This disc includes both the director's cut and the original theatrical version, as well as the bulk of the bonus features from the prior release.
Television broadcast
When HBO acquired the pay television rights to Saturday Night Fever in 1980, both versions of the film were aired by the network: the PG version during the day, and the R version during the evening. (HBO, which had primarily operated on a late afternoon-to-early overnight schedule at the time, had maintained a programming policy restricting the showing of R-rated films to the nighttime hours, a rule that continued long after it switched to a 24-hour schedule full-time in December 1981.) The R-rated theatrical version premiered on the network at midnight Eastern Time on January 1, 1980.
For the film's network television premiere, airing on ABC on November 16, 1980, a new milder version was created to conform with network broadcast standards. The network television version—which is among the longest cuts of the film—was basically a slightly shortened cut of the PG-rated version, but to maintain runtime, a few additional scenes deleted from both theatrical releases were restored to make up for the lost/cut material (including Tony dancing with Doreen to "Disco Duck", Tony running his finger along the cables of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, and Tony's father getting his job back). The last two deleted scenes were included in the 2017 director's cut.
https://youtu.be/zAfBctn_YlQ?si=6R-C73mHURvok0ss
Starting in the late 1990s, VH1, TBS and TNT began showing the original R-rated version with a TV-14 rating, although with nudity removed/censored, and the stronger profanity either being edited or (on recent airings) silenced. However, this version of the TV cut included some innuendo included in the original theatrical release that was edited or removed from the PG version. Turner Classic Movies has aired the film in both versions: the original R-rated version (rated TV-MA on the network) is the cut commonly broadcast, although the PG cut has been presented as part of TCM's family-oriented "Funday Night at the Movies" and "Essentials Jr." film showcases.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $25.9 million in its first 24 days of release and grossed an average of $600,000 a day throughout January to March going on to gross $94.2 million in the United States and Canada and $237.1 million worldwide.
Critical response
Saturday Night Fever received positive reviews and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of 1977. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Boasting a smart, poignant story, a classic soundtrack, and a starmaking performance from John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever ranks among the finest dramas of the 1970s." At Metacritic the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It was added to The New York Times "Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", which was published in 2004. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
https://youtu.be/M0AHzh7KcFw?si=yeo6ZnWYWfbhYXR9
Film critic Gene Siskel, who would later list this as his favorite movie, praised the film: "One minute into Saturday Night Fever you know this picture is onto something, that it knows what it's talking about." He also praised John Travolta's energetic performance: "Travolta on the dance floor is like a peacock on amphetamines. He struts like crazy." Siskel even bought Travolta's famous white suit from the film at a charity auction.
https://youtu.be/pMSwr7PZOyA?si=77Nh8NCuUPJKF4jW
Film critic Pauline Kael wrote a gushing review of the film in The New Yorker: "The way Saturday Night Fever has been directed and shot, we feel the languorous pull of the discotheque, and the gaudiness is transformed. These are among the most hypnotically beautiful pop dance scenes ever filmed ... Travolta gets so far inside the role he seems incapable of a false note; even the Brooklyn accent sounds unerring ... At its best, though, Saturday Night Fever gets at something deeply romantic: the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you'd like to be. Nirvana is the dance; when the music stops, you return to being ordinary."
Historians of disco have criticized the film as a whitewashed representation of disco. Katherine Karlin wrote: "The film is wrongly credited with sparking the disco culture; it’s more accurate to say that it marks the moment when disco—up to that moment a megaphone for voices that were queer, black, or female—became accessible to straight white men, and thus the moment marking its decline." Music historians Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton wrote in their book "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life": "The Bee Gees did for disco what Elvis Presley did for rhythm and blues, what Diana Ross did for soul, what Dave Brubeck did for jazz; they made it safe for white, straight, middle-class people, hauling it out of its subcultural ghetto and into the headlight glare of the mainstream. Here was something middle America could move its uptight ass to."
The 1980 comedy Airplane! by directors David & Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, included a flashback scene that directly parodied the dance competition scene at the disco in Saturday Night Fever.
In 2008, director Pablo Larraín made a film, Tony Manero, about a Chilean dancer obsessed by the main character in Saturday Night Fever who tries to win a Tony Manero look-alike contest.
https://youtu.be/qaX2bavetsA?si=Q9R0XyklkXYrG3sS
On April 17, 2012, Fox aired series Glee's episode 16, "Saturday Night Glee-ver", which pays tribute to the film and features various songs from its soundtrack (especially the songs performed by the Bee Gees), covered by the series' cast.
https://youtu.be/KUxMXsZZztw?si=JESXAHAUuX_4G_DJ
The Red Hot Chili Peppers 2016 music video for their song "Go Robot" is heavily inspired by the film and recreates the opening scene and classic characters from the film who are portrayed by each band member.
https://youtu.be/HI-8CVixZ5o?si=qRWrSdHI8DFn8d70
The 2018 film Ready Player One features a dance scene that references Saturday Night Fever, especially the red, yellow, and blue dance floor from the 2001 night club in the film.
By Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, Link
In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard‘s album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—”How Deep Is Your Love“, “Stayin’ Alive” and “Night Fever“
—along with Yvonne Elliman‘s “If I Can’t Have You“, all reached No. 1 in the US. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1.
IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU
The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2014 for being culturally significant.
Writing and recording
According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song “Lowdown” by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Stephanie in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song. However, representatives for Scaggs’s label, Columbia Records, refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to, in turn, write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie’s soundtrack.
The Bee Gees’ involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, “The Bee Gees weren’t even involved in the movie in the beginning … I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs.”
Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. Robin Gibb recalled:
We were recording our new album in the north of France. And we’d written about and recorded about four or five songs for the new album when Stigwood rang from LA and said, ‘We’re putting together this little film, low budget, called Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night. Would you have any songs on hand?’, and we said, ‘Look, we can’t, we haven’t any time to sit down and write for a film’. We didn’t know what it was about.
The brothers wrote the songs “virtually in a single weekend” at Château d’Hérouville studio in France. The first song they recorded was “If I Can’t Have You“, but their version was not used in the film.
If I Can't Have You – Bee Gees
Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos:
They flipped out and said these will be great. We still had no concept of the movie, except some kind of rough script that they’d brought with them …
Maurice Gibb recalled, “We played him demo tracks of ‘If I Can’t Have You’, ‘Night Fever’ and ‘More Than a Woman‘. He asked if we could write it more discoey.”
The Brothers Gibb then wrote a song called “Saturday Night” but as Maurice explains,
There were so many songs called ‘Saturday Night’ even one by the Bay City Rollers, so when we rewrote it for the movie, we called it ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
Bay City Rollers – Saturday Night (1976) • TopPop
The track was recorded at Criteria Studios, with Maurice Gibb playing a bass line similar to the guitar riff, Barry Gibb and Alan Kendall on guitar riffs, and Blue Weaver on synthesizers. Barry chose to sing falsetto on the whole song, except on the line “life’s going nowhere, somebody help me”. Dennis Bryon, who was a backing drummer, left in the middle of the session due to the death of his mother. So the group looked for a replacement.
However, as there was a shortage of qualified drummers in the area, they tried out a drum machine, with unsatisfactory results. After listening to the drum track of the already-recorded “Night Fever“, they took two bars from that track, and re-recorded them as a loop.
Commercial performance
At the time, Saturday Night Fever with Grease held the record for biggest preorders in Netherlands with 150,000 records sold.
Release
The original issue of the album included the original studio version of “Jive Talkin'”; later LP pressings included a version culled from Here at Last … Bee Gees … Live. All CD releases have included the original “Jive Talkin'”. “Jive Talkin'” was to have been used in a deleted scene taking place the day after Tony Manero’s first Saturday night at the disco, but as the sequence was cut for the final film, the song was cut as well.
Bee Gees – Jive Talkin' (Official Video)
In addition to the Bee Gees songs, additional incidental music was composed and adapted by David Shire. Three of Shire’s cues – “Manhattan Skyline”, “Night on Disco Mountain” (based on the classical piece “Night on Bald Mountain“) and “Salsation” – are included on the soundtrack album as well. Five additional cues – “Tony and Stephanie”, “Near the Verrazano Bridge” (both adapted from the Bee Gees’ song “How Deep Is Your Love”), “Barracuda Hangout”, “Death on the Bridge” and “All Night Train” – while heard in the film, remain unreleased on CD.
In 1995, the soundtrack was re-released on CD through Polydor Records. In 2006, the album was re-released on Reprise Records as part of the Bee Gees’ regaining control of their master tapes.
To commemorate the movie’s 40th anniversary, Capitol Records released a newly remastered version (However, CD 1 is the same remaster used for the 1995 Polydor release.) on April 21, 2017, with the original artwork and gatefold packaging.
On November 17, 2017, a deluxe box set was released with the original soundtrack, 4 new mixes of “Stayin’ Alive”, “Night Fever”, “How Deep Is Your Love” and “You Should Be Dancing”, a collector’s book, art prints, a movie poster and a turntable mat.
Along with the success of the movie, the soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees, is the second best-selling soundtrack album of all time after the soundtrack to The Bodyguard. Saturday Night Fever had a large cultural impact in the United States. The Bee Gees had originally written and recorded five of the songs used in the film – “Stayin’ Alive“, “Night Fever“, “How Deep Is Your Love“, “More Than a Woman” (performed in the film in two different versions – one version by Tavares, and another by the Bee Gees) and “If I Can’t Have You” (performed in the movie by Yvonne Elliman) as part of a regular album. They had no idea at the time they would be making a soundtrack and said that they basically lost an album in the process. Two previously released Bee Gees songs – “Jive Talkin'” and “You Should Be Dancing” – are also included on the soundtrack. Other previously released songs from the disco era round out the music in the movie. Rick Dees‘ single ‘Disco Duck‘, and another song by Dees, ‘Dr. Disco’, both appear in the film, but are not included on the soundtrack album.
The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It is the only disco album to do so, and one of only three soundtrack albums so honored. In 2012, the album was ranked No. 132 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time“, ranked again in a 2020 revised list at number 163. The soundtrack hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart‘s Pop Album and Soul Album charts. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time, and it was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television’s Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork Media listed Saturday Night Fever as the 34th best album of the 1970s.
Year-end charts Chart (1978) Position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) 1 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 1 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM) 1 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 1 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 1 Japanese Albums (Oricon) 3 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 1 UK Albums (OCC) 1 US Billboard 2001 Chart (1979) Position US Billboard 200 27 Decade-end charts Chart (1970–79) Position Japanese Albums (Oricon) 9 UK Albums (OCC) 8
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
A major critical and commercial success, Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous impact on the popular culture of the late 1970s. It helped popularize disco around the world and initiated a series of collaborations between film studios and record labels. It made Travolta, already well known from his role in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, becoming the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. The film showcases aspects of the music, dancing, and subculture surrounding the disco era, including symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute couture styles of clothing, pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide. Travolta reprised his role of Tony Manero in Staying Alive in 1983, which was panned by critics despite being successful at the box office.
In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Stayin' Alive Opening Scene – Saturday Night Fever (1977) 4K Movie Clip
He lives with his parents, grandmother, and younger sister, and works at a dead-end job in a small paint store. To escape his day-to-day life, Tony goes to 2001 Odyssey, a local discotheque, where he is king of the dance floor and receives the admiration and respect he craves.
Saturday Night Fever: Tony's solo dance
Tony has four close Italian-American friends from the neighborhood: Joey, Double J, Gus, and Bobby C. A fringe member of his group of friends is Annette, a neighborhood girl who is infatuated with Tony; however, he is not attracted to her.
Saturday Night Fever: A night at the 2001 Odyssey
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to clown around. The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life.
Saturday Night Fever 1977 Verrazano-Narrows Bridge movie scene
Tony agrees to be Annette’s partner in an upcoming dance contest, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano, whose dancing skills exceed Annette’s.
Saturday Night Fever: A date with a dancer
Although Stephanie rejects Tony’s advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership remains professional.
Saturday Night Fever: 2001 Odyssey's dance contest
Frank Jr., Tony’s older brother and the pride of the family as a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents and grandmother when he tells them he has quit the priesthood. Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr., but Tony feels pleased that he is no longer the black sheep of the family. Frank Jr. tells Tony that he never wanted to be a priest and only did it to make their parents happy. He also encourages Tony to do something with his dancing.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a gang and hospitalized. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas, a Puerto Rican gang. Meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devout Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child. Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks Frank Jr. if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion. When Frank tells him such a thing would be highly unlikely, Bobby’s feelings of desperation increase.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas and crash Bobby C’s car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby C. runs away when a gang member tries to attack him in the car. When the group visits Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have identified the wrong gang. Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition, sharing a kiss at the end of their performance, and end up winning first prize.
Saturday Night Fever: Fighting in the bar
However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges’ decision was ethnically motivated. He gives the Puerto Rican couple his trophy and award money and leaves with Stephanie. Once inside Bobby’s car, Stephanie mocks Tony and tells him she was using him. Tony tries to rape Stephanie, but she resists and runs from him.
MFSB – K-Jee – Saturday Night Fever (1977) [Blu-ray]
Tony’s friends come to the car along with an intoxicated Annette. Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone. Tony tries to lead her away but is subdued by Double J and Joey and sullenly leaves with the group in the car. Annette has sex with Joey in the back seat of the car. After Joey finishes with Annette, he switches places with Double J who then proceeds to force himself on Annette as she cries, with Tony clearly uncomfortable in the front seat. Bobby C. pulls the car over on the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics. After the other three guys get out of the car, Tony insults Annette, who is clearly distraught over being raped, and implies that she was asking for it.
Instead of abstaining as usual, Bobby performs stunts more recklessly than the rest of the gang. Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down. Bobby’s strong sense of despair, the situation with Pauline, and Tony’s broken promise to call him earlier that day all lead to a suicidal tirade about Tony’s lack of caring, before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below.
Saturday Night Fever: Falling off the bridge
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony angrily storms off, leaving Double J, Joey, and Annette behind. He spends the rest of the night riding the graffiti-riddled subway into Manhattan. Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie’s apartment. He apologizes for his bad behavior, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try to start a new life. Stephanie forgives Tony, and tells him that she was wrong to say she was using him, and that she danced with him because he gave her respect and moral support. Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends.
The soundtrack was released on November 15, 1977. Prior to the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history, and still ranks among the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide, with sales figures of over 40 million copies.
In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard‘s album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—”How Deep Is Your Love“, “Stayin’ Alive” and “Night Fever“—along with Yvonne Elliman‘s “If I Can’t Have You“, all reached No. 1 in the US. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1. The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2014 for being culturally significant.
With the exception of (*) track 12 “Jive Talkin“, all of the songs are played in the film.
RICK DEES AND HIS CAST OF IDIOTS – DOCTOR DISCO – (from SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER)
The novelty songs “Dr. Disco” and “Disco Duck“, both performed by Rick Dees, are played in the film but not included on the album.
SAturday. Night fever disco duck dance scene
According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song “Lowdown” by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Annette in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song.
Boz Scaggs ~ Lowdown 1976 Disco Purrfection Version
However, representatives for Scaggs’ label Columbia Records refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to in turn write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie’s soundtrack.
The song “K-Jee” was used during the dance contest with the Puerto Rican couple that competed against Tony and Stephanie. Some VHS cassettes used a more traditional Latin-style song instead. The DVD restores the original recording.
Norman Wexler‘s screenplay was adapted from a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night“. Although presented as an account of factual reporting, Cohn acknowledged in the mid-1990s that he fabricated most of the article. 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.
Development
Shortly after Cohn’s article was published, British music impresario Robert Stigwood purchased the film rights and hired Cohn to adapt his own article to screen. After finishing a single screenplay draft, Cohn was replaced by Norman Wexler, who’d previously picked up Oscar nominations for Joe (1970) and Serpico (1973).
John G. Avildsen was originally hired as the film’s director, but was replaced one month before principal photography by John Badham over “conceptual disagreements.” Badham was a lesser-known director who, like his star, had mostly worked in television. His sole prior film credit, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, was released while Saturday Night Fever was already well into production.
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | Billy Dee Williams James Earl Jones & More (1976)
The film went through several different titles, including Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night and Saturday Night. Badham chose the final title after the Bee Gees’ track “Night Fever“, which they submitted for the soundtrack.
Production
Casting
The film’s relatively low budget ($3.5 million) meant that most of the actors were relative unknowns, many of whom were recruited from New York’s theatre scene. For more than 40% of the actors it was their film debut. The only actor in the cast who was already an established name was John Travolta, thanks to his role on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
Welcome Back, Kotter (4/4) Travolta Struts His Stuff (1975)
His performance as Tony Manero brought him critical acclaim and helped launch him into international stardom. Travolta researched the part by visiting the real 2001 Odyssey discotheque, and claimed he adopted many of the character’s swaggering mannerisms from the male patrons.
NYC's 2001 Odyssey Disco ad (1979)
He insisted on performing his character’s own dance sequences after producers suggested he be substituted by a body double, rehearsing his choreography with Lester Wilson and Deney Terrio for three hours every day, losing 20 pounds in the process.
Karen Lynn Gorney was nine years older than Travolta when she was cast as his love interest Stephanie. Although Gorney had dance experience before she was cast, she found it difficult to keep up with her co-star due to injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident some years before. After the success of Saturday Night Fever, Gorney took a break from film acting to work as a dance instructor at a performing arts academy in Brooklyn. Jessica Lange, Kathleen Quinlan, Carrie Fisher, and Amy Irving were all considered for the part before Gorney was cast.
Donna Pescow was considered almost “too pretty” by Paramount heads Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg for the role of Annette. She corrected this matter by putting on weight. She also had to relearn her native Brooklyn accent, which she had overcome while studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Filming
The film was shot entirely on-location in Brooklyn, New York. The 2001 Odyssey Disco was a real club located at 802 64th Street, which has since been demolished. The interior was modified for the film, including the addition of a $15,000 lighted floor, which was inspired by a Birmingham, Alabama establishment Badham had visited. A similar effect was achieved on the club’s walls using tinfoil and Christmas lights. Since the Bee Gees were not involved in the production until after principal photography wrapped, the “Night Fever”, “You Should Be Dancin'”, and “More Than a Woman” sequences were shot with Stevie Wonder tracks that were later overdubbed in the sound mix. During filming, the production was harassed by local gangs over use of the location, and was even firebombed.
Saturday Night Fever (1977) Filming Locations | Then & Now
Saturday Night Fever Filming Locations Then & Now | 1977 John Travolta Disco Classic All Locations
To try to throw off Travolta’s fans who might disrupt filming, Badham and his team took to shooting exterior scenes as early in the morning as possible before people caught on – often at the crack of dawn. They would also generate fake call sheets. The tactics worked well enough that Badham was usually able to get the scenes done before significant crowds had time to gather.
Release
Theatrical
Movie poster of the PG version of Saturday Night Fever
Two theatrical versions of the film were released: the original R-rated version and an edited PG-rated version in 1979.
The R-rated version released in 1977 represented the movie’s first run, and totaled 119 minutes. After the success of the first run, the film’s content was re-edited into a 112-minute, toned down, PG-rated version, not only to attract a wider audience, but also to capitalize on attracting the target audience of the teenagers who were not old enough to see the film by themselves, but who made the film’s soundtrack album a monster hit. The R-rated version’s profanity, nudity, fight sequence, and a multiple rape scene in a car, were all de-emphasized or removed from the PG version. Numerous profanity-filled scenes were replaced with alternate takes of the same scenes, substituting milder language initially intended for the network television cut.
Paramount initially intended to release the PG-rated version of the film in 1978, as it was already being screened on airlines. However, due to the regulations set by the MPAA at the time, it was not permissible to have two versions of a film with different ratings shown concurrently in American theaters. Consequently, Paramount had to remove the film from exhibition for a period of 90 days before they could showcase the alternate rated version, thereby causing a delay in their release plans. Eventually, in 1979, the PG-rated version was made available to the public. Paramount later decided to present it as a double feature along with their other successful John Travolta film, Grease. In the A&E documentary The Inside Story: Saturday Night Fever, producer Robert Stigwood criticized the PG-rated version, stating that it undermined the film’s impact and lacked the power of the original R-rated edition.
Saturday Night Fever – The Inside Story
In 2017, the director’s cut (running 122 minutes) premiered at the TCM Classic Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Fathom Events hosted special screenings of this version in 2017.
Home media
Both theatrical versions were released on VHS. The PG-rated version never had a home video release on Laserdisc. The R-rated special-edition DVD release includes most of the deleted scenes present on the PG version, as well as a director’s commentary and “Behind the Music” featurettes.
On May 5, 2009, Paramount released Saturday Night Fever on Blu-ray Disc in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This release retains the R-rated version of the film, in addition to including many special features new to home media.
The 4K director’s cut (122 minutes) was released on Blu-ray on May 2, 2017. This disc includes both the director’s cut and the original theatrical version, as well as the bulk of the bonus features from the prior release.
Television broadcast
When HBO acquired the pay television rights to Saturday Night Fever in 1980, both versions of the film were aired by the network: the PG version during the day, and the R version during the evening. (HBO, which had primarily operated on a late afternoon-to-early overnight schedule at the time, had maintained a programming policy restricting the showing of R-rated films to the nighttime hours, a rule that continued long after it switched to a 24-hour schedule full-time in December 1981.) The R-rated theatrical version premiered on the network at midnight Eastern Time on January 1, 1980.
For the film’s network television premiere, airing on ABC on November 16, 1980, a new milder version was created to conform with network broadcast standards. The network television version—which is among the longest cuts of the film—was basically a slightly shortened cut of the PG-rated version, but to maintain runtime, a few additional scenes deleted from both theatrical releases were restored to make up for the lost/cut material (including Tony dancing with Doreen to “Disco Duck“, Tony running his finger along the cables of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, and Tony’s father getting his job back). The last two deleted scenes were included in the 2017 director’s cut.
Saturday Night Fever – 2 Extremely Rare Deleted Scenes
Starting in the late 1990s, VH1, TBS and TNT began showing the original R-rated version with a TV-14 rating, although with nudity removed/censored, and the stronger profanity either being edited or (on recent airings) silenced. However, this version of the TV cut included some innuendo included in the original theatrical release that was edited or removed from the PG version. Turner Classic Movies has aired the film in both versions: the original R-rated version (rated TV-MA on the network) is the cut commonly broadcast, although the PG cut has been presented as part of TCM’s family-oriented “Funday Night at the Movies” and “Essentials Jr.” film showcases.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $25.9 million in its first 24 days of release and grossed an average of $600,000 a day throughout January to March going on to gross $94.2 million in the United States and Canada and $237.1 million worldwide.
Critical response
Saturday Night Fever received positive reviews and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of 1977. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Boasting a smart, poignant story, a classic soundtrack, and a starmaking performance from John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever ranks among the finest dramas of the 1970s.” At Metacritic the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. It was added to The New York Times “Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made”, which was published in 2004. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
John Travolta DOMINATES the dancefloor | Saturday Night Fever | CLIP
Film critic Gene Siskel, who would later list this as his favorite movie, praised the film: “One minute into Saturday Night Fever you know this picture is onto something, that it knows what it’s talking about.” He also praised John Travolta’s energetic performance: “Travolta on the dance floor is like a peacock on amphetamines. He struts like crazy.” Siskel even bought Travolta’s famous white suit from the film at a charity auction.
https://youtu.be/pMSwr7PZOyA?si=77Nh8NCuUPJKF4jW
Film critic Pauline Kael wrote a gushing review of the film in The New Yorker: “The way Saturday Night Fever has been directed and shot, we feel the languorous pull of the discotheque, and the gaudiness is transformed. These are among the most hypnotically beautiful pop dance scenes ever filmed … Travolta gets so far inside the role he seems incapable of a false note; even the Brooklyn accent sounds unerring … At its best, though, Saturday Night Fever gets at something deeply romantic: the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you’d like to be. Nirvana is the dance; when the music stops, you return to being ordinary.”
Historians of disco have criticized the film as a whitewashed representation of disco. Katherine Karlin wrote: “The film is wrongly credited with sparking the disco culture; it’s more accurate to say that it marks the moment when disco—up to that moment a megaphone for voices that were queer, black, or female—became accessible to straight white men, and thus the moment marking its decline.” Music historians Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton wrote in their book “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”: “The Bee Gees did for disco what Elvis Presley did for rhythm and blues, what Diana Ross did for soul, what Dave Brubeck did for jazz; they made it safe for white, straight, middle-class people, hauling it out of its subcultural ghetto and into the headlight glare of the mainstream. Here was something middle America could move its uptight ass to.”
The 1980 comedy Airplane! by directors David & Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, included a flashback scene that directly parodied the dance competition scene at the disco in Saturday Night Fever.
In 2008, director Pablo Larraín made a film, Tony Manero, about a Chilean dancer obsessed by the main character in Saturday Night Fever who tries to win a Tony Manero look-alike contest.
Tony Manero – Trailer
On April 17, 2012, Fox aired series Glee‘s episode 16, “Saturday Night Glee-ver“, which pays tribute to the film and features various songs from its soundtrack (especially the songs performed by the Bee Gees), covered by the series’ cast.
GLEE – Night Fever (Full Performance) HD
The Red Hot Chili Peppers 2016 music video for their song “Go Robot” is heavily inspired by the film and recreates the opening scene and classic characters from the film who are portrayed by each band member.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Go Robot [Official Music Video]
The 2018 film Ready Player One features a dance scene that references Saturday Night Fever, especially the red, yellow, and blue dance floor from the 2001 night club in the film.
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Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
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