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

Saturday Night Fever was originally released in 1977. As I was a little kid at the time, and it was perceived as just some film about disco dancing, a pastime that was much-derided in my adolescence, I never got around to seeing it until now. That's kind of a shame really, as I might have really enjoyed it's themes as a teenager.

As a grown-up, Tony Manero (John Travolta – Welcome Back Kotter, Grease, Pulp Fiction, Face/Off, Battlefield Earth, The Punisher, Bolt) just seems like a whiny little bitch to me. His attitude reflects your cliché spoiled brat teenager archetype: He will do do whatever he wants to do, including and expecially disrespect his parents and spend all of his time and money toward his next good time. A nineteen-year-old in 1970s Brooklyn, Tony is the disco dancing alpha male. Tony is a shark among minnows on the dance floor, and his friends are merely remoras. His entourage are looked down on but tolerated. This also includes doe-eyed sycophant Annette (Donna Pescow – Angie, Out of this World, Even Stevens), who is inexplicably treated as if she's the least attractive girl in the film, even though the opposite is true. Superior dancer or no, Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gormey – Men in Black) simply does not hold up to Pescow.

Extras

• Commentary by Director John Badham
• Catching the Fever:
  • A 30-Year Legacy
  • Making Sountrack History
  • Platforms & Polyester
  • Deejays & Discos
  • Spotlight on Travolta
• Back to Bay Ridge
• Dance Like John Travolta with John Cassese
• Fever Challenge!
• 70s Discopedia
• Deleted Scenes

There are two real reasons to watch Saturday Night Fever. The first is for the music. with a soundtrack dominated by the Bee Gees and filled out with other memorable disco hits by era superstars like KC and the Sunshine Band and Kool & the Gang, as well as the Trammps now eternal one-hit "Disco Inferno". The second reason to watch this film is the cultural significance. Some of which is illustrated in the Special Features listed above. While most of the characters are rather insipid, Saturday Night Fever stands out as an important film as a launching pad for the nascent disco scene of the era. Without this film, disco may have never become the sensation that it was, and for better or worse, modern music and dance may have never evolved to become what they are today.

Now with this release on Blu-ray, we have the perfect medium for home theatre. With 1080p resolution and 5.1 Dolby Digital TrueHD surround sound we can each dance the night away, but at home, where no one's watching.

ComicsOnline gives Saturday Night Fever 3 out of 5 chances with a hot young Donna Pescow.