Saturday Night Fever: Seeking Out An Escape

The disco ball, the colourful lights and Travolta's perfect hip moves. John Badham's Saturday Night Fever premiered in 1977 as a film that promised to spread the disco fever across the globe. Bee Gees' music in the background and the highly choreographed sequences are contagious and fun. Yet, they serve as a distraction to a deeper concern of the director towards the lives and anxieties of low-class, young Americans in the 70's.

As the film starts, the audience is introduced to a young Travolta (Tony) and his so-characteristic way of walking that meets the perfect tune of Bee Gees' 'Stayin' alive'. The diegetic and non-diegetic sound meet in a memorable opening sequence that tells us so much about the protagonist as an individual with want. As he walks, he carefully observes his surroundings with a sense of belonging, but also with a twinkle of alienation. The red shirt, the high-heeled boots and the confident posture confer him a distinguished look from that of the other men that pass by him. He is the 1970s. With the progress of the narrative, and growth of the characters, one soon understands that this is not just a film about 19 and 20 year-olds that spend money on good-looking shirts and fashionable shoes. Entertainment is as much present as reflection. Behind the lights, abortion, sexuality, ambition, religion and discrimination play their role into the evolvement of the story and the exposition of a critical view over American society, that often left youth to live at the margins.

So, Saturday Night Fever presents us two paths one can follow in a world where decay and conformity are just around the corner.The first, is one of strength and escape into a life of self-worth; the other, is one of redemption where individuals allow themselves to fall into an endless abyss of a life with no dreams. Such is wisely depicted in the scenes at the Verrazano-Narrows bridge , that connects the suburbs to the city. As the group of friends risk their lives playing silly games, they demonstrate how on the edge they are living; between life and death, meaning and emptiness. These binaries are an omnipresent reality. It all reaches its climax in the scene after Tony wins the dance competition. Upon arguing with Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney), he joins the group in a trip to the bridge, where he sees himself confronted with his reality. While Bobby C. (Barry Miler) is being suffocated by the reality that has been imposed on him, in a time when abortion was blasphemy and young people were still not properly sexually educated, Tony realizes that the life he has been leading is not the one he wants. So, the protagonist crosses the thin line of reason, reaching the end of the bridge into a future in which he can know that any success that comes his way is an honest result from his hard work. In the end, escape is the key. Every single character in this film seeks a way out of its reality that is so unsupported and with so little guidance, where the bust of a move on the dancefloor provides them the happiest and most unproblematic minutes of their lives.