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WHERE DO YOU GO WHEN THE
RECORD IS OVER... Saturday Night Fever was released on December 16, 1977 and was based on the article "Tribal rites of the new Saturday night", which looked at the emerging disco scene. The movie focuses on Tony (John
Travolta), an
uneducated Brooklyn teenager. The highlight of his week is going to the
local disco, where he is the king of the dance floor. Tony meets Stephanie
(Karen Lyn Gorney) at the disco and they agree to dance together in a
competition. Stephanie resists Tony's attempts to romance her, as she
aspires to greater things, primarily moving across the river to Manhattan. With a breakthrough performance by John Travolta and the smash hit soundtrack by the Bee Gees, Saturday Night Fever tuned into the psyche of America's youth disco culture and became an instant box office smash. Domestically, the film grossed $142.5m and is ranked number 100 in the all time US Box office list (the rank would be higher if inflation was taken into account). |
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THE SOUNDTRACK It was no surprise that apart from Travolta, the other star of the film was the original soundtrack. Thanks to the musical genius of the Bee Gees, it was a smash hit, easily surpassing the then highest selling album in history, "Frampton comes alive". The soundtrack scored no less than 10 chart hits in the US and UK, 6 of them hitting number 1. In fact, between Christmas 1977 and May 1978, a Bee Gees single was at number one on the US chart for 15 out of 20 weeks. There reign only ended when "If I Can't Have You" went to Number 1, which they wrote! In 1977 the Bee Gees won the Best Vocal Group/Duo Grammy for "How Deep is your love". In 1978, the album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and the Bee Gees won Best Group Vocal for "Night Fever". The soundtrack still holds the record as the highest selling movie soundtrack of all time. For the complete track listing and chart information, click here or the discography button at the top of the page. |
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TRAVOLTA TRIVIA
John Travolta's sister appears as the pizza lady, and his mother appears as the women for whom he gets the paint. John Travolta originally wanted his disco suit to be black until it was pointed out that in the darkened disco, his co-star's red dress would make her easier to see than him. Norman Wexler's screenplay was adapted from the "non-fiction" magazine article written by Nik Cohn. Years later, Cohn admitted that the story, supposedly a fact-based account detailing the lives of Brooklyn teenagers in the early days of the disco craze, was a complete fabrication.Film critic Gene Siskel often referred to Saturday Night Fever as his favourite film. He saw it 17 times and at one time owned the famous "white suit". In Tony's (John Travolta) bedroom, we see a Rocky poster. The sequel to Saturday Night Fever, "Staying Alive", is written and directed by the star of Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) |
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TWO VERSIONS? Saturday Night Fever has two ratings: The R-rated version is 119 minutes, it had contained the offensive language, nudity, and sexual content. In 1978, the film was re-issued as a PG-rated version with the offensive language, sex, and the GO GO dancer were removed, and replaced them with milder footage. The PG rated film is 113 minutes which was shorter than the original R rated film that was six minutes longer. An alternate PG-rated version removes explicit language and substitutes milder footage in some sequences. This version is the one routinely used for television showings and is 11 minutes shorter than the original R-rated one. The scene in the car that has Tony's friends talking about the drugs they have and Tony complains about how old Bobby's-8 tracks are is usually cut when the film is shown on network TV. The same goes for the scene that has the stripper in the background. Another TV version shown on ABC in the '80s added more outtake footage, with the PG-rated print as its primary source. In the latest VHS release, which is in surround, some of the music has been altered (probably for copyright problems). Most annoying is the replacement of K-JEE by M.F.S.B., during the dance by the Puerto Rican couple in the contest, by some generic sounding music. This same music is also played instead of "Disco Duck" in the brief glimpse of the dance studio owner giving lessons to a group of people. In Belgium, due pressure from younger audiences, the 'rape' scene was cut. This permitted people younger than 16 to go and watch the movie. This happened a few months after it's initial release, giving Saturday Night Fever a second life. The DVD version is the R rated print. It includes deleted scenes, a commentary by director John Badham and highlights form VH1's Behind the music special which strangely never mentions the Bee Gees once! |
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SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER - THE MUSICAL In 1997, the musical version of the film hit London's West End starring Australia's Adam Garcia to enthusiastic reviews. The original cast recording is still available and features three new songs "It's my neighbourhood", "What kind of fool" and "Immortality" as well as Bee Gee classics like "Staying Alive", "You Should Be Dancing" and "Tragedy". Based on its London success, the show soon moved to Broadway's Minskoff Theatre where it enjoyed a year run before embarking on a regional tour of the US. You can find out if it's playing in a city near you at www.feverontour.com. Current worldwide productions include Italy, The Netherlands and Germany. The show hit Australia in 2004 and recently opened to rave reviews in Melbourne in January 2005. |
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