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It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and general restlessness and disillusionment with his life as he feels directionless and trapped in his working-class ethnic neighborhood.
The story is based upon Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night, a mostly fictional article by music writer Nik Cohn, first published in a June 1976 issue of New York magazine. The film features music by the Bee Gees and many other prominent artists of the disco era.
A major critical and commercial success, Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous effect on popular culture of the late 1970s.
The film helped significantly to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, who was already well known from his role in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, becoming the fifth-youngest nominee in the category.
The film showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies; haute couture styles of clothing; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; and graceful choreography.
The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks in history.
John Travolta reprised his role of Tony Manero in Staying Alive in 1983, which was panned by critics despite being successful at the box office.
In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
More information: Vanity Fair
The film's relatively low budget ($3.5 million) meant that most of the actors were relative unknowns, many of whom were recruited from New York's theatre scene. For more than 40% of the actors it was their film debut. The only actor in the cast who was already an established name was John Travolta, thanks to his role on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. His performance as Tony Manero brought him critical acclaim and helped launch him into international stardom.
Travolta researched the part by visiting the real 2001 Odyssey discotheque, and claimed he adopted many of the character's swaggering mannerisms from the male patrons.
The film was shot entirely on-location in Brooklyn, New York.
The 2001 Odyssey Disco was a real club located at 802 64th Street, which has since been demolished. The interior was modified for the film, including the addition of a $15,000 lighted floor, which was inspired by a Birmingham, Alabama establishment Badham had visited. A similar effect was achieved on the club's walls using tinfoil and Christmas lights.
Since the Bee Gees were not involved in the production until after principal photography wrapped, the Night Fever, You Should Be Dancin', and More Than a Woman sequences were shot with Stevie Wonder tracks that were later overdubbed in the sound mix. During filming, the production was harassed by local gangs over use of the location, and was even firebombed.
The dance studio was Phillips Dance Studio in Bensonhurst, the Manero home was a house in Bay Ridge, the paint store was Pearson Paint & Hardware, also in Bay Ridge. Other locations included the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, John J. Carty Park, and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
More information: Robert Ebert
you're my dream girl or nothin'.
Tony Manero
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