“Night Fever” – BEE GEES
Listen to the ground:
there is movement all around.
There is something goin’ down
and I can feel it.
On the waves of the air,
there is dancin’ out there.
If it’s somethin’ we can share,
we can steal it.
And that sweet city woman,
she moves through the light,
controlling my mind and my soul.
When you reach out for me
yeah, and the feelin’ is bright,
then I get night fever, night fever.
We know how to do it.
Gimme that night fever, night fever.
We know how to show it.
Here I am,
prayin’ for this moment to last,
livin’ on the music so fine,
borne on the wind,
makin’ it mine.
Night fever, night fever.
We know how to do it.
Gimme that night fever, night fever.
We know how to show it.
In the heat of our love,
don’t need no help for us to make it.
Gimme just enough to take us to the mornin’.
I got fire in my mind.
I got higher in my walkin’.
And I’m glowin’ in the dark;
I give you warnin’.
And that sweet city woman,
she moves through the light,
controlling my mind and my soul.
When you reach out for me
yeah, and the feelin’ is bright,
then I get night fever, night fever.
We know how to do it.
Gimme that night fever, night fever.
We know how to show it.
Here I am,
prayin’ for this moment to last,
livin’ on the music so fine,
borne on the wind,
makin’ it mine.
Night fever, night fever.
We know how to do it.
Gimme that night fever, night fever.
We know how to show it.
Saturday Night Fever
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American drama film directed by John Badham and starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a working-class young man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano, his dance partner and eventual confidante; and Donna Pescow as Annette, Tony’s former dance partner and would-be girlfriend. While in the disco, Tony is the king. His circle of friends and weekend dancing help him to cope with the harsh realities of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his general restlessness.
A huge commercial success, the film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TV’s Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.[4] 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 story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night“. In the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he fabricated the article.[5] A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the character who became Tony Manero was based on a Mod[6] acquaintance of Cohn’s. In 2010, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congressand selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The sequel Staying Alive (1983) also starred John Travolta and was directed by Sylvester Stallone.
Plot
Anthony “Tony” Manero (John Travolta) is a 19-year-old Italian American man from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Tony lives with his parents (Val Bisoglio and Julie Bovasso), and works at a dead-end job in a small hardware store. The stagnant monotony of his life is temporarily dispelled every Saturday night when Tony is “king of the dance floor” at 2001 Odyssey, a local disco club. Tony has four close friends: Joey (Joseph Cali); Double J (Paul Pape); Gus (Bruce Ornstein); and the diminutive Bobby C. (Barry Miller). A fringe member of his group of friends is Annette (Donna Pescow), a neighbourhood girl who longs for a more permanent physical relationship with Tony.
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to clown around. The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side—in more suburban Staten Island.
Tony agrees to be Annette’s partner in an upcoming dance contest at 2001 Odyssey, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney), who executes intricate dance moves with exceptional grace and finesse. Although Stephanie coldly rejects Tony’s advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership will remain strictly professional. Tony’s older brother, Frank Jr. (Martin Shakar), who was the pride of the Manero family since he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents when he tells them that he has left the priesthood. Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr., but feels vindicated that he is no longer the black sheep of the family.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a Hispanic gang and is hospitalized. He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas. Meanwhile, Bobby C. has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child. Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks former priest Frank Jr., if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion. When Frank tells him this would be highly unlikely, Bobby’s feelings of despair intensify. Bobby lets Tony borrow his 1964 Chevrolet Impala to help move Stephanie from Bay Ridge to Manhattan, and futilely tries to extract a promise from Tony to call him later that night.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas, and crash Bobby C’s car into their hangout. Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby C. takes off when a gang member tries to attack him in the car. When the guys visit Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have targeted the wrong gang. Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition and end up winning first prize. However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges’ decision was racially rigged. He gives the Puerto Rican couple the first prize trophy, and leaves with Stephanie. Once outside in a car, she denigrates their relationship and he tries to rape her. She resists and runs from him.
Tony’s friends come to the car along with a drunk and stoned Annette. Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone. Tony tries to lead her away, but is subdued by Double J and Joey, and sullenly leaves with the group in the car. Double J and Joey rape Annette. Bobby C. pulls the car over on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics. Typically abstaining, Bobby gets out and performs more dangerous stunts than the rest. Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down. Bobby’s strong sense of alienation, his deadlocked situation with Pauline, and Tony’s broken promise to call him earlier that day—all culminate in a suicidal tirade about Tony’s lack of caring before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below them.
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony spends the rest of the night riding the subway into Manhattan. Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie’s apartment. He apologizes for his bad behaviour, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try and start a new life. Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends, sharing a tender moment.
AS THIS AUTHOR SEES IT……
“Saturday Night Fever” was a huge hit in the late 70s when it hit the screens worldwide and it had every reason to its popularity – it was a showcase for mesmerising dance performances and addictive pop music. In fact, it was probably one of the early milestone films of the Disco Era. It became hugely popular because of its all-time star cast, particularly a youthful and handsome John Travolta.
When one first sees the movie, it gives the distinct impression of superficiality, fickleness and of portraying a poor story line. However, if one takes the time to sit back and think of the story, it would be a fairly true evocation of life in the late seventies. It tells the story of the desultory lives of a group of youngsters -‘drifters’ – a group of teenagers or youth barely in their twenties who lead fickle lives and the only thing that they really have to look forward to is a visit to the Disco on Saturday Night.
While the story moves on, in this meandering way, it captures the imagination of its audience with mind-blowing dance sequences and upbeat songs with good lyrics.
Towards the end of the movie, the protagonist, Tony Manero (John Travolta) realizes that life is about much more than just free sex, bad language, cigarette-smoking, drug-toting, gang warfare and visits to the disco. He evinces a new-found maturity and decides to lead a new and more responsible life. He realizes that he has a passion for dance and music and he decides to make use of this talent in a positive way. He has realized along the way that a relationship with a woman is not just about sex; it can start out as a fruitful friendship and later, if need be, bloom into love. Tony realizes that the change in his life will not happen overnight but with his intelligence and new-found diligence, he knows that he can move places. He realizes that he no longer needs to remain being the black-sheep of the family.
Tony had always been no less than a drifter but Fate had new and different things in store for him. He had decided to let maturity, responsibility and positivism enter his life and only good things are allowed to happen then …..
“Hooked on Inspiration’s Blog” by Sherna Bhumgara 