Saturday Night Fever, the iconic 1970’s disco film is really a tale of two cities, Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s a depiction of people trying to break out of dead end lives. While both Manhattan and Brooklyn are a part of New York City, in the 1970’s they were worlds apart. Manhattan was White Collar while Brooklyn was blue collar. Manhattan was a borough full of hopes and dream while Brooklyn, the setting of the film, was the home of broken dreams. The characters in Saturday Nigh Fever, most especially Tony Manero, are looking for a way out of their mundane lives. Saturday Night Fever, the quintessential seventies film, fondly remembered for it’s polyester suits and memorable dance sequences, remains a dark, enduring portrait of a New York
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Bobby seems barely tolerated by his friends. He is deeply upset with his own life and with his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He feels hopeless about his situation and knows that the rest of his life is now set before him. A good 1970’s Italian boy married his pregnant girlfriend. Abortion is not an option in this Italian Catholic community. Bobby’s life ends on that symbolic bridge. Its not a coincidence that Bobby dies on that bridge. He doesn’t cross that bridge like Tony wants to do. He dies on it. Tony then recognizes that he must literally cross that bridge, to live a new life. Thus, the film ends with Tony in Stephanie’s Manhatten apartment determined to make a life there. The films repeated use of bridges to symbolize the deep social and economical conditions separating the films characters from a better world. This summed up in review in Pop Matters. “For most of the characters in Saturday Night Fever, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge paradoxically represents both, a connection and an insurmountable barrier to a better life”
Saturday Night Fever remains of of the best loved films of the 1970’s. It is remembered for its Bee Gee’s soundtrack, for John Travolta’s dance moves and for a sea of polyester. What it should really be remembered for, is its harsh depiction of the darker side of 1970’s New York City and of the entire country. The film’s depiction of class warfare, it’s blatant misogyny. it’s racism it’s violence should remind modern day Americans, that we are better of moving forward as a society rather than going backward. Anybody who thinks we need to make America great again may want to look at this
Bobby seems barely tolerated by his friends. He is deeply upset with his own life and with his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He feels hopeless about his situation and knows that the rest of his life is now set before him. A good 1970’s Italian boy married his pregnant girlfriend. Abortion is not an option in this Italian Catholic community. Bobby’s life ends on that symbolic bridge. Its not a coincidence that Bobby dies on that bridge. He doesn’t cross that bridge like Tony wants to do. He dies on it. Tony then recognizes that he must literally cross that bridge, to live a new life. Thus, the film ends with Tony in Stephanie’s Manhatten apartment determined to make a life there. The films repeated use of bridges to symbolize the deep social and economical conditions separating the films characters from a better world. This summed up in review in Pop Matters. “For most of the characters in Saturday Night Fever, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge paradoxically represents both, a connection and an insurmountable barrier to a better life”
Saturday Night Fever remains of of the best loved films of the 1970’s. It is remembered for its Bee Gee’s soundtrack, for John Travolta’s dance moves and for a sea of polyester. What it should really be remembered for, is its harsh depiction of the darker side of 1970’s New York City and of the entire country. The film’s depiction of class warfare, it’s blatant misogyny. it’s racism it’s violence should remind modern day Americans, that we are better of moving forward as a society rather than going backward. Anybody who thinks we need to make America great again may want to look at this