Saturday Night Fever

[DiscoMan]

Watched the SNF DVD at home last night.
That movie is an absolutely perfect time capsule of the modest urban disco clubs I remember from the mid '70's!

Clubs you would find in the working class neighborhoods of NYC, Providence, Boston, Worcester, Hartford. Not the Studio 54s or the Boston-Bostons or other "mega clubs".

When I watch it it's like looking into a mirror!!!!!!

You youngsters who were either too young to participate in disco or not yet born, watch SNF. That IS Disco in urban America. John Badham and John Travolta really nailed the Disco era with this flick!

I would imagine that this topic has been discussed on this forum in the past, however....It is still the best visual image we have of Disco. I love "Thank God It's Friday" but I was never in a club like the "Zoo". Clubs like the 2001 Odyssey in Bay Ridge (802 64'th st. Brooklyn?) I lived in!

[sammyperez]

Disco Man:

Funny you should bring up this movie. I was just discussing this flick with Jazzman, Blaxman and Zecazevedo because I just watched it the other night also. I mentioned that while I used to think this movie was kind of cheesy when it first came out, I have a deeper appreciation for it now. The music which I did not like too much before because it was so commercially overplayed, I really dig alot more now. I especially like 'Manhattan Skyline' by David Shire which is playing in the background the second time Tony approaches Stephanie in the dance studio. Most of all though, I really enjoy this movie now because it reminds me so much of New York in the '70's. It is so ironic how much I notice the Twin Towers in the movie now. Funny the things you remember and appreciate as you get older. 'Thank God it's Friday' was obviously a cheap Hollywood effort to cash in on the Disco Boom of the '70's where 'Saturday Night Fever' was obviously a more generous ode to the genre. Over 25 years later, while the genre has faded, the movie obviously has not. "I like that new haircut, I like that polyester look".

Easy,

Sam "ALL JAM"

[BrunoRepublic]

'Thank God it's Friday' was obviously a cheap Hollywood effort to cash in on the Disco Boom of the '70's....

Actually, it was more of an informercial for Casablanca product. You can't really blame Hollywood for that one.

[paul]

Good topic DiscoMan. I was going start a similar topic the other day after watching "Summer Lovers" again. Summer Lovers captured the vibe and attitude from that period. Even though it was made at the end of the era in the states, the feeling was still in europe where the movie was set.
As for SNF, I love the music and some of the scenery but it didn't quite make me feel as good at the end of the movie as Summer Lovers did. I do agree though that the club scene in SNF was typical of the clubs I attended back then.
I did go to Boston Boston a few times and you're right, it was a mega club. Everytime I think of that club I can still hear them playing "Countdown." They had a fucking awesome sound system. Damn I miss that era :cry:

[DiscoMan]

About the feelings of hopelessness and being trapped by your environment that pervade SNF; PERFECTION!

That WAS me and my crew. We had 4 to 6 young guys (number would vary), all in our mid 20s from the same background and with the same dead end future and we found our only release was in the clubs on Saturday night.

Some of us have done fairly well down through the years ONLY because we were able to attend and complete baccalaureate programs at our local public colleges. Education saved our asses and gave us some hope - just like the character of Stephanie!

When I see and hear those characters in that movie
it becomes a very personnal experience for me because of it's dead-on portrayal of that time and place - of myself and the guys I hung with - it's really scary!

[NickNack]

Interesting... I grew up in Brooklyn (from Bay Ridge to Bed-Stuy and everywhere in between :) ), attended Fort Hamilton H.S. and didn't leave Brooklyn until I joined the Air Force. With all that, SNF does not ring with me at all. I've seen it maybe 3 or 4 times (I didn't see it when it was first released) and although the music is great I wouldn't miss the movie if it weren't around.

I'm not saying it's bad, just thinking how, as a representative film of an era, it hits so true with DiscoMan and I've yet to find a movie about disco or the era that does that for me. I'm hoping the upcoming release of Maestro will change that.

[paul]

Maestro?
Fill me in Nicky.

[NickNack]

Paul,

Maestro is a documentary they say was "4 Years In the Making" about the beginnings of 'underground disco'. Somebody on the board (K-Bee, efunk, can't remember :oops: ) brought it up maybe a month or so ago. It's going to concentrate on the 'pioneers' and their clubs:

DAVID MANCUSO - THE LOFT
LARRY LEVAN - PARADISE GARAGE
NICKY SIANO - THE GALLERY
FRANKIE KNUCKLES
FRANCOIS K.

This is a small number of the dj's as it will be an international gathering. The film's already opened in several cities in Europe and I believe they've screened it in Chicago. Here's the website for all who might be interested:

http://maestro-documentary.com/indexflash.html

[peppertree5706]

Yes I am from Brooklyn and I loved going to neighborhood clubs. But I am Jewish and from Sheepshead Bay. (I lived in Bensonhurst in the mid eighties). Bensonhurst is a different scene from Sheepshead Bay.

The biggest difference is that my number one "fun" pursuit and priority then was getting sex. Disco was a fun way to go through the pursuit but I was into the sex (no AIDS then) more than the club scene.

I was in college during that time and the movie that I can identify with more was Animal House. I really could identify with it. A second movie I could "step into" was called First Love with the girl from the Partridge Family as the star. Susan Dey?

I think SNF pertains most to Italian-Americans in Bensonhurst. But I do love the movie.

[paul]

Thanks Nicky. It'll be interesting to hear/see the opinions from old school disco people.

[efunk_adelic]

I saw Saturday Night Fever on the big screen with premere tickets.. :D. I didn't go into the theater with any expectations... it was just another set of free tickets that my aunt gave her children, my sister & I. I would have just died if they played Do What You Wanna Do by T-Connection... but they didn't :( Anyways, there's nothing like seeing that movie on the big screen. It made a big impact on me... and what followed was incredible... I love talking about this time period & the movie at the same time.

When I saw TGIF, I thought to myself... I'm into music, I like that booth... it might be fun playing the music for people.

[HustleBaby]

It's funny that we are talking about SNF, I saw it the other night and the more I watch it, the more I appreciate it. Years ago, I thought that it was just a movie about the 70's nightlife:discotheques and the hustle. I've meet some people that feel its a movie about italians and Brooklyn but (IMO) it is a growing of age movie.

There were two memorable scenes that stuck with me
#1:is when Tony's boss rehires him in the hardware store and tells him that he has a career in that business. Then he points out all of the older men in the shop calling out the 13-15 years they've spent there. The look on Tony's face said it all - he did not want to spend the rest of his life in a hardware store.
#2:the hustle contest - Tony knew that him and Stefanie weren't as good as the puerto rican couple and hated the fact that he got first prize. And then his own friends couldn't be honest with him. It seems like he got tired of hating and being unfair.

Finally I felt sorry for the kid who jumped off the Verrazano bridge - he was depressed and needed his friends to console him yet they never had the time for him. Personally, I don't think that they were "true" friends!

*DISCO DELIGHT*

[HustleBaby]

Did anyone recognized "The Nanny" in SNF? She was the girl in the turquoise dress that asked Tony "Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor"?

*DELIGHTFUL*

[jim]

'Thank God it's Friday' was obviously a cheap Hollywood effort to cash in on the Disco Boom of the '70's....

Actually, it was more of an informercial for Casablanca product. You can't really blame Hollywood for that one.

IMHO the music in TGIF was better then SNF,and the soundtrack is overall a bit better.

SNF was good including the 12' version of Disco Inferno but TGIF was better.

[DiscoMan]

I can understand where NickNack is coming from regarding SNF. His joining the USAF probably was his escape at a fairly young age. I didn’t enlist – didn’t wanna go to the “Nam.

As for myself: when the character of Tony looks at his co-worker, who’d been working in that paint store for 15 years(?) with a mixture of contempt and fright I knew just how he felt – my first post high school job was in the snagging room of a local manufacturer. Snagging Room – I ground casting flash from the mold parting lines of cast iron castings! Arghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about hopeless! And the guys I worked with ALL had serious mental problems because of their jobs. I was in an utterly hopeless situation. This experience is what drove me to night college – which became my way out. My pals were all in similar situations. Our escape was Saturday night at the local dance clubs, then later at the Disco Clubs. Yeah, it is a coming of age movie, it’s an excellent study of urban working class youth, a time capsule of the late ‘70s, all of the above.

About the “Nanny”, Fran Drescher (I thought she did an excellent job in the role); the women were in as hopeless a situation as the guys. The scene where double J is banging the chick in the car in front of 2001 Odyssey rings true! We were a little more discrete – we used the darkest corner of the parking lot of the Red Barn in Westboro, MA. So I think that SNF is THE signature movie for a lot of guys from backgrounds similar to mine.

[infrasound]

I feel like SNF is definitely a good movie, and probably does represent *most* of the club-goers from that year to an acceptable degree. But, IMHO, the real story that should have been told was definitely modified to appeal to the mainstream and make a LOT of money. It lacks some integrity for that reason. That's entertainment - for most people at least.

As a side note about another movie with a good soundtrack, I saw the Spike Lee movie "Summer of Sam" with John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, and Adrien Brody...the music was great, and the club scenes were also very cool. I thought it was going to be a serial killer thriller, but it really was just a snapshot, a mood piece. Music by Marvin Gaye, ABBA, The Who, Roy Ayers, Chic, Grace Jones, First Choice, Thelma Houston. Check it out!

[efunk_adelic]

As a side note about another movie with a good soundtrack, I saw the Spike Lee movie "Summer of Sam" with John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, and Adrien Brody...the music was great, and the club scenes were also very cool. I thought it was going to be a serial killer thriller, but it really was just a snapshot, a mood piece. Music by Marvin Gaye, ABBA, The Who, Roy Ayers, Chic, Grace Jones, First Choice, Thelma Houston. Check it out!

infra, what songs by First Choice & Grace Jones did they play?

[infrasound]

"Let No Man Put Asunder" and "La Vie En Rose".

[efunk_adelic]

"Let No Man Put Asunder" and "La Vie En Rose".

thanks for the reply infra,

I'm wondering what year the murders took place... I'm real big on making sure the movie & music are in sync. Not sure why i'm like that. :)

efunk

[infrasound]

No problem, efunk. I found an article about the Son of Sam, written around the time of the release of the movie. It looks like the murders took place in 1977. Here's the article:

http://www.salonmag.com/ent/log/1999/06/21/berkowitz/

So at least for the Grace Jones and First Choice tracks, the soundtrack is right on - both of those songs were released in '77.

[Lajazz947]

I also saw the movie here in LA the night that it opened. I loved it then and I love it now. I must have seen it 20 times and I saw it again about 2 weeks ago . I was recently in NYC and saw the Broadway musical also. It brought back a flood of memories.

While it may have been a movie about Italian-Americans in Bensonhurst, me and my Cuban Friends in LA identified with it very strongly. We used to go to various discos:

My Uncle's
The Tiki's
Dillons
The Sugar Shack

By the way, the highest rated radio program on Saturday evenings is " Disco Saturday Night on KBIG 104 "

I love my wife who is 12 years younger than me but as a previous poster wrote, " God, I miss those times ".

[peppertree5706]

Can you make an aircheck of the LA show? I would like an aircheck.

[NickNack]

Can you make an aircheck of the LA show? I would like an aircheck.

Hey Peppertree,

Just what is an "aircheck" anyway?

[Lajazz947]

I also want to know what an Aircheck is. I'll be happy to oblige as soon as I figure out what it is.

[QUINNY]

Nicky & Lajazz: An aircheck is a recording of a radio programme 'off air'. Even this dumb Limey knows that Americanism. :lol: