Essay 1: Saturday Night Fever (ch.17 1h 28 30- ch.

18 1h 38 30)
Anna Olejniczak (Erasmus)
The Saturday Night Fever (1977) is an American movie directed by John Badham. In
the film starring: John Travolta as Tony Monero, Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano
and Donna Pescow as Annette. This movie raised important topics such as hard life,
discrimination and racism. Saturday Night Fever depicts that everybody should have a
passion which should preoccupy your time and be a form of escape from everyday life. This
allows a break from the rush of life and puts a smile on your face, regardless of the
surrounding circumstances. Thats what the main character Tony does. During the day he is
an ordinary young man but weekends he turned into a king of the dance floor. Tony is
working at a small hardware store. At home, Tony fights constantly with his father and has to
compete with his family's starry-eyed view of his older brother, a priest. Nor can he find
satisfaction at his dead-end job. The monotony of his lifetime is shortly dismissed every
Saturday night when Tony is going to 2001 Odyssey, a local disco club.
He has a gang of friends: Joey, Double J, Gus and the Bobby C. Tony and his friends
dream of moving out of Manhattan, but they do not have much of a chance, because they are
not educated. The theme of escape to the big city is central to American films and literature in
the 1970, and "Saturday Night Fever'' has an obvious predecessor. The bridge has special
significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side to the more
suburban Staten Island. Tony participated in the dance contest at 2001 Odyssey. At the
beginning he agreed to be a partner with Annette, but fascinated by another woman at the
club, Stephanie, who executes sophisticated dance moves with exceptional grace and finesse.
Tony and Stephanie decide to help one another to start anew beginning in their lives, but
Stephanie provided that their partnership will remain strictly professional.
The scene of the final dance contest can be interpreted as a conclusion to the one of the
most relevant topics in the story, the racism. Tony and Stephanie give a good performance but
Puerto Rican couples after them were dancing much better than them. Tony realized that their
skills were more advanced and he was impressed of the choreography. However, Tony and
Stephanie won and the Puerto Rican couple was placed on second place. Tony believes that a
foreign couple presented more interesting dance arrangement; he was certain of the judges'
decision was racially biased. He gave the Puerto Rican couple the first prize award and the
envelope with the reward. The movie before that scene shows that we see that racism in Tony

too. He goes from fighting the Puerto Ricans (in Brooklyn) to giving away his prize to them
(in Manhattan). Saturday Night Fever becomes a blockbuster because it deals with the
current issues in society. In 1970 U.S still struggle with big inequalities and non-tolerance for
black and Latinos. Tony did not agree with the verdict and left quickly the club with
Stephanie. Once outside in a car, she denigrates their relationship and he tries to rape her. She
viciously resists and runs from him.
The movie's plot involves relation between Annette and Tony and Stephany and Tony.
Annette is a neighborhood girl who is fall in love in Tony but her love was unrequited. Tony
could choose between Annette, the girl who loves him, and Stephanie the girl who works in
Manhattan and represents his dream of class. As was mentioned above Tony attacked
Stephanie which shows that while his racism may be behind him, his sexism is not really. The
interface with Annette and Stephanie was a contradicting relationship. Annette was very
similar to his male friends, immaturity seeing Tony as the only possible to get out from
Brooklyn. With Stephanie, Tony could experience love without sex and become maturity. The
kissing scene during the final performance depicts the subtle and romantic aspect of their
relationship.