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Technical Information
Studio: Paramount
Home Video
Year of Theatrical Release: 1977
Disc Format: 1
single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format: Anamorphic
(16x9 enhanced)
Aspect Ratio: 1:85:1
Region Encoding: 1
Sound Format: Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time: 118
minutes
Director: John
Badham
Stars: John
Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Donna Pescow
MPAA Rating: R
Disc Supplements:
- Feature length commentary with director John Badham
- Highlights from VH-1 Behind the Music documentary
- Deleted Scenes
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Tony Manero (John Travolta) is at the nebulous
age when high school is finished, but no real responsibilities
of life have set in yet. He works in a hardware store, where
he has an excellent rapport with his customers. In fact, his
boss would like him to stick around until he retires. And that
very notion scares Tony.
At home, Tony is under appreciated His parents
would like to see him do something with his life, like his brother,
who is a priest.
Tony may be just a lowly hardware store clerk
during the week, but on Saturday nights, he's a king. With the
right clothes, the right jewelry and, perhaps more important,
the right hair, he transforms into a man that all the guys want
to be friends with and all the girls want to be better friends
with. Tony has no equal on the dance floor and when he steps
on to the stage, the crowd just backs off to watch.
Still, somewhere in the back of his mind,
Tony realizes that living only for Saturday nights is no life
at all. Somehow, some way, he aspires to break out of Brooklyn.
He sees a glimmer of hope in the form of a dance contest. It's
not so much the specific contest, which only pays $500, but
rather that it represents the opportunity to do something with
his talents other than just kill time on a Saturday night.
It's hard to talk about this film without
making mention of the music or the wardrobes. Almost all films
tend to date themselves in some form or another, but few are
so visually a product of their time as Saturday Night Fever.
So entrenched in the disco subculture is this film that some
people simply can't get past it. And yet, there are themes offered
by the story that are just as relevant today as they were back
in the 1970's.
John Travolta hits all of the right notes
in his performance as a kid who gives off the image of having
all the answers, but is anything but. Director John Badham further
enhances the mood and characters by playing the film seriously,
while injecting just the right amount of real life humor.
Saturday Night Fever works as a film about
disaffected youth. It should ring true to anyone who has ever
spent a part of their lives trudging through the work week just
to make it to a few hours of weekend fun at the club or bar
or cruising the strip. The message is clear: Saturday night
is always better in theory than in reality and planning your
life around a couple of hours on the weekends is no way to achieve
one's dreams or foster happiness.
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top |
Bright colors. A dance club is known for its
bright colors. This is a film that likely could have had lots of
problems with its transfer, but Paramount has seen to it to get
this one right. Saturday Night Fever may be 25 years old, but this
disc almost makes it look like new. Certainly there are some elements
of the picture that will look dated no matter what simply due to
the filming trends and processes at the time. Still, this is a wonderful
transfer.
Colors are rich and very vibrant, with accurate
flesh tones and no visible color bleeding. The transfer contains
strong contrasts with deep blacks that are filled with as many details
as the filming process will allow. To be clear, almost any problems
with the image on this disc are related to the source material and
even then, it's been cleaned up as much as possible. Perhaps the
only fault to be found is in some very minor edge enhancement.
:::back to top |
Some films just beg for something
to be done with their soundtracks and this is one of them. For a
film so reliant upon its music, Saturday Night Fever has always
fallen short in the home video arena (I can't comment on the theatrical
presentation, having never seen the film in the theater). Paramount
has done considerable work in cleaning up the audio and pumping
it up to full 5.1 surround sound. The result is a soundtrack that
finally jumps off the screen and surrounds the listener with disco
fever. Bass levels are also appropriately enhanced, adding a nice
thump to the music.
:::back to top |
Paramount could have put this disc out with
no extras (as they have so many times in the past with catalog titles)
and been satisfied with a great audio and video presentation. Thankfully,
they chose not to rest only on the merits of the film and have provided
us with some decent supplemental material.
First up is a brand new commentary track with
director John Badham. For the most part, this track is very informative
and entertaining and Badham seems to have great recollection of
stories and anecdotes from the shoot. Aside from just a few gaps,
he does a nice job of filling the track with information.
Next up is a featurette highlighting the VH-1
Behind The Music special. VH-1 actually does a pretty decent job
of putting together these documentaries, so the only complaint is
that this only a highlight of the special and not the full documentary.
Still, this is put together pretty well and does a nice job of hitting
the high points, such taking a look at a proud Gene Siskel showing
off his prized possession, Travolta's white suit.
Finally, Paramount gives us three deleted scenes.
They total just about three minutes and a decent little snippets
of added character scenes, but they don't seem as though they would
have added to the film in any significant way. The scenes are all
widescreen and anamorphic, but show their age.
:::back to top |
All in all, it's not a bad release from Paramount.
We don't get a lot of extras, but what is offered is good, which
works for me. I'd rather have a few quality extras over a disc bloated
with EPK fluff pieces and pointless (and badly presented) gimmicks.
The biggest complaint I do have with this release is the packaging.
For some reason, Paramount has decided to go with cardboard packaging
for some of their releases and I hate them. The standard keepcases
may be bulky, but they are at least durable and protect the discs.
This cardboard crap has got to go.
:::back to top |
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| This is essentially a coming
of age story, and therefore might be of interest to the older teens,
but keep younger kids away. |
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| -- By Robert Wurth. Copyright
© 2003. |
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