Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 movie starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a New York discotheque. While in the disco Tony is the king, and the visits help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his associations with a dead-beat gang of friends.

Story

The story of the film has Tony Manero connect with the aloof Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) one night at the disco. Despite her initially frosty and superior attitude towards Tony she agrees to partner him in the dance contest after much urging. Tony had previously agreed to dance with Annette, who had actively pursued Tony despite his obvious disdain for her. Stephanie has a job in Manhattan and is poised to move there. This awakens in Tony the need to transcend his working-class roots of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. However, Stephanie herself ultimately reveals her own vulnerabilities.

Related Topics:
Karen Lynn Gorney - Manhattan - Bay Ridge - Brooklyn

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Also examined through the film is Tony's relationship with his family, including an older brother who abandons a planned career in the priesthood. and his association with his no good friends.

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The story is based upon a 1975 New York Magazine article by Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night". In the late 1990s, Cohn acknowledged that the article had been completely fabricated. A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, the British Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about. The characters who were to become Tony Manero and his friends sprang solely from his imagination.

Related Topics:
1975 - New York Magazine - Nik Cohn - Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night - 1990s - United States - British

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