Saturday Night Fever

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Tony and his scumbag friends hang around Bay Ridge disco, hijinks ensue.

[Edgy MD]

Holy shit, yes.



That montage of the long subway ride home never fails to touch me in the pourin' rain.

[Frayed Knot]

Never saw it.



Part of that definitely had to do with my anti-disco attitude at the time. But I think a large part of its popularity had to do with guys identifying with Travolta's Tony, something I never did.

Rogert Ebert used to claim that the reason it was one of Gene Siskel's all-tiime favorites (Siskel at one point owned one of the two iconic white suits worn in the film) was that he wished

he could look and talk and walk as cool as Tony. I used to joke that it was mostly the Irish and Jewish kids who wanted to wish themselves into that part rather than the Italian ones

because a large chunk of them already fancied themselves as the Tony Manero of their neighborhood.



But that whole scene never appealed to me and the handful of times I've tuned in over the years when it came around on cable I've just never hung with it. I'll take in a couple of scenes

and then say 'Yeah, that's enough'.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I watched it for the first time about a year or so ago. One thing I noticed is that all (or most) of Travolta's friends got laid during the course of the film, but he never did.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

He kinda half-did.



I was thinking at the end of this that it was a story that could have had an excellent sequel potential, but the reviews for STAYIN ALIVE were so uniformly bad I'd probably never try it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Lenny's Pizza on 86th Street in Brooklyn, made famous by SNF's Tony, who stacked 'em one on top of another, closes for good.



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Also, this is one of my all-time favorite SNL skits:



[media=youtube]8g5mD5C5X_I[/media]

[Edgy MD]

The odd part is it has a lot in common with samurai films. It may have become an iconic representation of a culture, but to watch it, it certainly doesn't come across as celebration of that scene. Even if Robert Stigwood teed it up as an exploitation film, it comes out as a documentation of the beautiful, almost heroic stupidity of young men. Tony is totally a code hero.





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[MFS62]

I watch it every time it comes on.

The music inspired my wife and me to take hustle dance lessons which we never ended up using. I guess we got hustled.



A side note, the song "Manhattan Skyline" was written by my cousin, David Shire (yes, married to actress Talia).

For several years, it was used on national NBA telecasts when they broke for commercial.



Later

Edited May 1, 2023 by Guest

[whippoorwill]

Love it!



And I always loved Manhattan Skyline as well

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I don't endorse double-stacking pizza generally but if you're carrying a paint can in one hand and you need 2 slices then that's a good solution.

[whippoorwill]

As I recall his real life sister was the pizza lady

[kcmets]

Have only seen fifteen minutes here and there (over the last 35 years)

on cable so I feel like I've seen it. The album, movie and the whole disco

craze was taboo where I lived. Dudes in designer jeans in high school were

just begging to get stuffed in a locker without them.



I find some of the songs fun now more than forty years later. Nostalgic. Like

at a wedding or some shindig. The movie? No.

[Edgy MD]

One star out of five. Ouch.



And yet a five as well. The war goes on.

[dgwphotography]

“You know I work on my hair for a long time...and you hit it...he hits my hair...”

[whippoorwill]

He filmed that scene in mourning for his real life girlfriend who had just died

[metirish]

As a youngster in Ireland I thought wow , NYC is amazing

[Edgy MD]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=123918 time=1682949881 user_id=68]Also, this is one of my all-time favorite SNL skits:



[media=youtube]8g5mD5C5X_I[/media]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Robert Blake? Robert Wagner?

[Edgy MD]

Wow, good calls! That's a club to stay out of.



And Alec Baldwin is the all-time hosting leader and, while the law might not call him a murderer, probably more than a few folks would.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Then there was Phil Hartman, an SNL host who was murdered.



But that doesn't count.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And there's also Phil Spector, but apparently he never hosted SNL. (I looked it up!)

[batmagadanleadoff]

Does anybody still watch SNL? I haven't in decades. If I hear about a funny bit, I'll watch the clip on the web.