Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Saturday Night Fever
Directed by John Badham
Written by Norman Wexler based on a story by Nik Cohn
1977/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tony Manero: You make it with some of these chicks, they think you gotta dance with them.

Ugly story.  Fantastic music.

Tony Manero (John Travolta) lives in Brooklyn with his critical family, hangs out with his scumbag friends, and works selling paint.  The high point of his week is Saturday night when he is the undisputed best dancer at the local disco and the object of lust for all the ladies.  There is to be a contest with a $500 prize for the best couple.  He badly wants to win this.  So he starts practicing with his adoring usual partner Annette whom he won’t give the time of day to off the floor.

Then he meets Stephanie, an upwardly mobile secretary who happens to be just his type and a fantastic dancer to boot.  They start practicing.

This is an extremely misogynistic movie and I really don’t care to discuss all the disgusting things that happen in it.  Stephanie may be the only thing that can save Tony from being as bad as the rest of his friends.

I put this on for the music.  The plot was just as melodramatic and awful as I remembered it to be from the other times I have seen it.  I recommend buying the soundtrack album.

John Travolta was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar and was excellent both in  his character and as a dancer.