Saturday Night Fever

rowland · March 19, 2019, 5:50pm

Aside from the music, Saturday Night Fever is a pretty good movie.

Dawud · March 19, 2019, 10:55pm

Just another movie about ethnic minority gang-bangers (*) with their trendy dance music.

(*) literally–several of them rape one of the girls, while the protagonist, Travolta’s character, tries to rape the other

yyy · March 20, 2019, 1:39am

Wait, what? Are you sure we saw the same film?

Dawud · March 20, 2019, 3:03am

Don’t tell me you got distracted by all that Bee Gees music and disco dancing.

You know, they should totally remake that movie as a rap / hip-hop thing.

DrewC · March 20, 2019, 3:52am

Is the sequel ‘Staying Alive’ about him being on the run from the police?

RickRoll · March 20, 2019, 5:36am

I guess @Dawud read this article:
http://www.tracking-board.com/saturday-night-fever-a-problematic-classic-in-film-history/

Dawud · March 20, 2019, 10:22am

No, but it basically just summarizes the plot of the movie (you know, the part nobody remembers because of all the Travolta disco dancing). Money 'graf:

[Tony, Travolta’s character] then tries to rape Stephanie. She takes off and Tony is met up by his boys and an extremely intoxicated Annette. She says she’ll have sex with Tony and all his friends. Like a real weirdo, Tony sits in the front seat of the car while Bobby drives around and their other friends take turns raping Annette. Finally, Bobby pulls over on the bridge, rants about his pregnant girlfriend and how Tony has ignored him and then throws himself off the bridge. Then Tony runs off and rides the subway until he gets to Stephanie’s place. She lets him in and they agree to be friends.

yyy · March 20, 2019, 8:34pm

Actually, I think we didn’t see the same film.

Wiki:

After the success of the first run, in 1979, the film’s content was re-edited into a toned down, PG-rated version and re-released during a second run, 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.

Producer Robert Stigwood said in an A&E Documentary of “The Inside Story: Saturday Night Fever”, about the PG version:

It doesn’t have the power, or the impact, of the original, R-rated edition.

The PG-rated version was 112 minutes. Numerous profanity-filled scenes were replaced with alternate takes of the same scenes, substituting milder language initially intended for the network television cut.

rowland · March 21, 2019, 1:22am

Some of my relatives are Italian-American trash, exactly as depicted in the film. I avoid them like I avoid disco.

Ethnic stereotypes don’t emerge from a vacuum.

Icon · March 21, 2019, 1:55am

Dunno, even here in Taiwan they have braodcast the tv version with the rape content and all. Which is really unusual as they tend to cut out anything sexual from films.

tango42 · March 21, 2019, 4:45am

I tried to watch it recently and the music was the only thing that kept me awake and interested. Not even a Bee Gees fan.

rowland · March 21, 2019, 2:41pm

If the music didn’t make you wan to hit mute, then your tastes are… unusual.

For me, it’s the gritty realism plus the character development. The main character has a post-douchebag epiphany. It’s almost like the ending to A Christmas Carol.

Yeah, you might also want to hit mute during the family drama scenes. Sometimes realism is annoying.