Saturday Night Fever - The Origin Of ‘Haute Culture’

An American blockbuster of 1977 and all time favorite, “Saturday Night Fever” is a classic movie that was a complete revolution in the world of cinema. Produced by Robert Stigwood and Kevin McCormick and directed by John Badham, this movie changed the way of looking at cinema, and now cinema was more than just entertainment. 

Starring John Travolta (as Tony Manero) and Karen Lynn Gorney (as Stephanie Mangano) as lead actors, the film is based on the life of Tony, who is in his youth and is carefree about life. Having a bad relationship and constant rifts with his parents, Tony joins a discotheque as the lead dancer and performs there on weekends. Stephanie is his dance partner and both of them ignite fire on the DJ, together. However, the movie is so famous till date not just because of its story or music; there are other aspects that were covered by this film. These were symphony-orchestrated melodies; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; graceful choreography; and haute couture styles of clothing.

The soundtrack of the film composed by Bee Gees, “Saturday Night Fever” was an all time hit and still is much of a dance number. The copies of it sold in millions and choreography in the film was a standout. The new dance style and the white suit of Tony were other memorable icons of the film.

The film was based on a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night". When Nik came to the USA, he was completely unaware about the culture of discotheque and hence, wrote an article about his first experience of the same. The plot of the film “Saturday Night Fever” is taken from that article of Nik’s.

The film was produced with a budget of $3.5 million. It would be interesting to note that the film earned $282,400,000 at the box office. The movie was such a huge hit at the box office that Sylvester Stallone directed its sequel “Staying Alive” in the year 1983. The name of the sequel was chosen very wisely as it was one of the soundtracks of the original film. All in all, the 118 minutes run time film had 17 soundtracks, almost all of them highly loved by the audience. 

“Saturday Night Fever” was a legendary film and as a result, won several awards and nominations to its actors, including, Golden Screen, Germany, Golden Globe, Writers Guild, and many others.