Cheap Saturday Night Fever (DVD) (John Travolta) (John Badham) Price

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Customer Reviews of Saturday Night Fever

John Travolta is excellent as young Tony, a working-class kid from Brooklyn with the talen for disco dance, but not much ambition for anything else. He's a womanizer, a racist, and a simpleton in the ways of the world. That is until he meets a woman who challenges him, and partners with him to win a dance competition at the local disco. In between, we learn of his family problems, his hoodlum friends, and his other troubles he encounters (and no doubt causes). He lives for Saturday Night, where he is king of the dance floor. The dance scenes are exciting as ever, with Travolta giving 110% in his role. Evvery aspect of this movie fits.

The Paramount DVD, while not exactly packed with extras, makes for a quality Special Edition. There is a 30 minute "Highlight" from VH1's Behind the Music, which is always fun to watch, but I would have loved to have the extra 30 minutes included (it's a 1 hour show). The deleted scenes fill in where they are needed, but the real gem is the Director's commentary, which gives valuable insight into the trails and successes that went into making this film. The transfer itself is nice, but is a bit grainy in parts, showing the limitations of the source print. But that is not a serious flaw. Anyone who loved "Saturday Night Fever" will no doubt be interested in this special edition.

The relevant issues of wasted youth, violence, racism, and dysfunctional family life are all key to this movie, and should make it appealing to those who think of it as "a campy disco flick". It is a great story with a killer soundtrack which is, while dated, still fun to watch and listen to. The DVD brings it back to life and adds some quality extras.

More relevant after all these years
After reading all the reviews, the one by Gareth from Disco Mountain hits it right on the head. I loved it when it came out almost 25 years ago, I think it's a masterpiece now. There's no dead space in that movie. When you consider all the issues raised, it's astounding that more people don't see the authenticity and humanity within all the flaws of the characters. What Badham did was create a seamless integration of many contemporary themes, and they still hold today in some other neighborhood anywhere in the world. First, it has some of the most natural dialogue ever written. Gritty and powerful and sexy. When I first saw it, I reacted to it with passion. Today, I see the brilliant writing and directing, and those issues! feminism, racism, class consciousness, family dysfunction, religious uncertainty, teenage angst, the inevitable changes encroaching the neighborhood. And all these social commentaries to the beat of nonstop, exhilirating music. The apathy and despair in the family scenes alone go right to the gut. I know these people! Finally, blend that in with those great Brooklyn accents, the dancing, Travolta and company, and you've got one of the most authentic movies made in the last 25 years.

Admit it
You liked this movie when it came out. And John Travolta's dancing was possibly the coolest thing you'd ever seen. Then came the disco backlash and it suddenly was uncool. Which is unfair because this movie is a classic of time and place, despite it's technical flaws (the occasional visible boom mike, obvious reuse of 2nd unit dance footage, and conversations where lips aren't moving.) Not for nothing was this the late, great Gene Siskel's favorite movie instead of say, Roller Boogie or Can't Stop the Music.

I was going to write about some of the best scenes from this movie but who HASN'T seen it? Instead, let's just focus on this DVD. It does have some extras which are always nice but they are on the skimpy side. There are 3 deleted scenes that are largely throw-aways. I'm curious why they didn't include the extra footage they used for the PG version which includes more dance scenes. There is a decent VH1 Behind the Music episode about it. If you saw it when it was on, then there's no reason to see it again; although it does have some fabulous rehearsal footage of John that's definitely worth viewing. The best of the bunch is director John Badham's commentary which is very good and exactly what a director commentary should be-peppered with amusing trivia (e.g. the lady who played Travolta's grandmother kept presenting him with scenes she had written to beef up her part), technical details, and wry humor. And plus you have a true screen classic on DVD. Re-watch it after all these years and still discover something new to enjoy.