***Please be warned, spoilers straight ahead***
Ah, what can I say about “Saturday Night Fever?”
“Saturday Night Fever” is one of the major reasons why I want to make movies. This movie just spoke to me, and I was such a young kid when I first saw it. I must have been under 10, but it still spoke to me.
Of course the version that I saw back then was a bit different. It used to come on TV, that’s regular TV, where a lot of the racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and other parts of the movie that “may not be suitable for a younger viewing audience” were edited out. Seeing it on regular TV (and basic cable) was the only way I ever saw this movie until I was 26, living in Brooklyn, New York and felt compelled to buy the DVD.
I must admit, seeing the unedited version after watching the TV version for so many years was jarring. You’d be hard pressed to find a movie with that much potentially offensive content being made today. Still, I can appreciate their depiction of a certain type of young, white, working-class men living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
My absolute favorite scene in this movie has changed. It will probably come as no surprise, to those who have seen it that it used to be the ending scene. I remember liking her apartment and the visceral-quality of those final moments that I probably couldn’t even articulate as a child, but I didn’t need to because I felt it. I remember being really intrigued by them ending as friends instead of in a relationship, or marriage, or something typical like that.
However as I got older, and had a better understanding of the significance of rape, that took away some of that scene’s romantic flair. Now it can almost be cringeworthy when I really think about it. No matter how heart-warming it is, seeing it in the context of understanding that he did in fact attempt to rape her makes me wish she never let him in, told him to get the fuck away from her door and never come back again. I don’t like the idea that one could be so quickly and easily accepting of someone who tried to force himself on her.
There is a bit of saving grace, however, in the fact that in the sequel called “Staying Alive”—which, by the way, I just started watching a few moments ago when I was having technical trouble, which is why this post is late, well partially why, anyway – Stephanie is so far nowhere in it. Not so much as mentioned is she. That’s bittersweet, because I truly loved her character, and would have liked to see what happened to her, to them even. I’ll just assume that she realized being around him was not the best for her, and she parted ways.
However, what I do like about her not being in the sequel is that it’s art imitating reality in that some people – even those whom you’ve had a connection with, and who made a difference in your life – are only meant to be in your life for a season, never to be seen or heard from again.
It’s also interesting that while “Saturday Night Fever” has a solid R rating, and with good reason, “Staying Alive” is rated PG – not even PG-13, just straight-up PG. The sequel apparently has the main character reformed from his smoking, drinking, and disrespecting-women ways.
But like I said, that’s not the scene I came to talk about today. Today I came to talk about my new favorite scene in this movie. The scene I never really paid much attention to until I was an adult, and had enough life experience to appreciate it’s subtlety. Perhaps you’re picking up a theme here from my previous Movie Scenes I Love entry—I love it when an actor acts without words. Don’t get me wrong drama and ostentation has its place, but I love that calm, quite acting that looks like you are being a voyeur into someone else’s real life, and writing so good that it’s hard to believe the dialogue was scripted. That is this scene for me.
A little Bit About the Movie
Just in case you haven’t seen “Saturday Night Fever” or don’t know what it’s about, let me give you a brief overview. It’s the story of a working-class guy who lives in Brooklyn, works in a paint store by day, and pursues his dancing dreams by night, all the while getting into shenanigans with his friends, navigating family dynamics, and falling for a standoffish girl.
In this scene the main character, Tony Manero, played brilliantly by John Travolta, takes his love-interest Stephanie Mangano, played superbly by Karen Lynn Gorney, to look at the Verrazano Bridge. They’d just left Manhattan, after he helped her move into her new apartment where inadvertently they run into an older man from her job who, unbeknownst to him, is responsible for Stephanie getting the place. He calls her out on it, which upsets her to tears. So to make her feel better, he brings her to this spot to look at the bridge.
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for. Here are three things that I really like about this scene:
1. It’s Character Driven
What’s interesting about this scene, just from a human behavior standpoint – which, by the way, I love how the writer Norman Wexler picked up – is that here, in a sense, Tony starts to mimic Stephanie’s behavior from earlier in the movie. When they first started hanging out, she talked a lot about her job, name-dropped celebs and just tried to sound educated and professional even when she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. She even put him down for not being more educated and professional. However, now after being fed a big piece of humble pie following that unexpected encounter with what appeared to be her sugar daddy, she was more amenable to listen to him without criticizing him. He talked about the bridge the same way she cluelessly rambled on and on earlier in the movie, only he actually knew what he was talking about.
2. How Deep Is Your Love
While the Bee Gee’s beautiful ballad (check that alliteration “How Deep is Your Love”) is solidified at the end of the film, it’s during these scenes that the song is first introduced in the movie in instrumental form. And what can I say, I just love that song.
3. Male Vulnerability
My absolute favorite part about this scene though is the male vulnerability. Before they unexpectedly ran into the actual owner of Stephanie’s new apartment in Manhattan, she was making it seem like she got it on her own. What’s more, this guy treated her the same condescending way she treated Tony when they first started hanging out. After that embarrassing encounter, Stephanie is now displaying a softer side to Tony that he hasn’t seen much of before. This is, at once, giving him the confidence to talk more, while at the same time making him a bit shy. It’s like he can’t believe she’s being so affectionate and attentive to him. It’s a shyness that’s punctuated by a kiss she tenderly plants on his cheek, bringing him to the verge of tears…and I die.
I mean is that not fucking everything? That scene is fucking everything. Oh, how I love it!
I forgot where I saw it at, it was probably on the DVD, or VH1 back when they had those pop-up bubbles to explain things in the movie. You remember that? But anyway, it said that the tearing up thing wasn’t even in the script, John Travolta did that on his own.
Like what! Now that’s what I’m talking about when I say acting without words. I don’t know nothing about acting as far as me doing it myself, other than I’m terrible at it (even still, I write a cameo for myself in all of my movies). But in my humble – or not so humble – opinion, the true measure of an actor is if they can do it without words. And this scene right here?
(pause)
(pause)
Tell me this, who won the Oscar over him that year? I need to look up who won, I mean stole the Oscar from him that year
, because that was just such a beautiful fucking moment.
Don’t believe me, just watch…
Notice to the Future
One day, when I’m a big-time writer-director, or small-time one for that matter – I don’t care if I’m helming a kindergarten play in a backyard (these little 2-year-old rugrats now days know how to use the computer better than me anyways) hopefully you look me up first before you audition and read this. During casting I will give you a portion of the script that calls for you to also act without words. I want you to take my words off the page and do with them what simply words on the page cannot do. Then, and only then, will you get the part!
I have spoken…errr, written.
And that’s a wrap!
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