Saturday Night Fever

The 1977 American dance drama film Saturday Night Fever was produced by Robert Stigwood and directed by John Badham. Tony Manero, a young Italian-American from the New York borough of Brooklyn, is portrayed by John Travolta in the film. Manero, who struggles with social tensions and disillusionment and feels stuck in his working-class ethnic neighborhood, spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a nearby discothèque. The tale is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night," a largely fictitious piece by music critic Nik Cohn that was initially released in a June 1976 edition of New York magazine. The soundtrack to the movie includes songs from the Bee Gees and numerous more well-known disco musicians.

A major critical and commercial success, Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous effect on popular culture of the late 1970s. With the assistance of the movie, disco music became more widely known throughout the world, and Travolta, who was already well-known for his part in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, became a household figure. His performance earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. The movie highlights several facets of the disco era's music, dance, and subcultures, such as symphony-orchestrated songs, haute couture fashions, pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity, and beautiful choreography. One of the best-selling soundtracks in history is the one for the movie Saturday Night Fever, which includes disco tunes by the Bee Gees. John Travolta reprised his role of Tony Manero in Staying Alive in 1983, which was panned by critics despite being successful at the box office.

Duration: 104 mins
Year: 1977
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Roy Scheider, Gene Hackman, Frédéric de Pasquale, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozzuffi, Tony Lo Bianco