Just a heads-up in case anyone missed it; BBC4 broadcast a fantastic documentary last night about the making of the best Disco film ever, ever, ever; the joyous romp that is Saturday Night Fever.
I recall that watched the movie on a big screen cinema in Exeter back in the day and boogied all the way back to my flat afterwards. The documentary was hugely engrossing, and just made me want to get the DVD out and PAAAAARTY.
Anyone overseas without a VPN, drop me a line if you missed it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09jxjxs/saturday-night-fever-the-ultimate-disco-movie
Moose the Mooche says
“the best Disco film ever”…. what are the other ones? Stayin Alive? the Music Machine? Thank God It’s Friday? …. actually the last has a crackin’ soundtrack though but… This, for example…
One day, when I’ve got the house to myself and I’ve fortified myself with something sturdy, I’ll sit through the Bee Gees Sgt Pepper film. It’s got Frankie Howerd as Mr Mustard…
Black Type says
As any fule kno, the best one has to be the classic You Can’t Stop The Music.
Moose the Mooche says
It’s got to be done. The dancefloor here does initially look like the Piper on Newland Avenue.
PS. Early appearance by Nick Frost at the one minute mark.
Alias says
Car Wash of course
Black Type says
I can tell by the way you use your walk.
Moose the Mooche says
Leave Genesis out of this!
….and everything else!
dai says
It’s not a great film, but fantastic music and a few good moments. Will try and watch the doc
Vulpes Vulpes says
Probably right about the movie. Shame there’s a need for those joyless picky bastards up there ^ to wail about it. I thought a few of us here might have missed the documentary and might like to know it was available online. Bit of hype never hurts. Shan’t bother in future.
Anyway, @dai, I hope you enjoy it – it’s an interesting insight into fillum making on a budget tighter than John Travolta’s trousers.
Moose the Mooche says
I’m a joyless picky bastard for making a cheap joke? Sorry, I realise that a thread about disco should be a shrine of sepulchral solemnity… You wanna try being me, if I start a thread I’m grateful for anyone turning up, even if it’s to say “Shut up, you stupid fat bastard”
If I had a bad word to say about SNF – which I wouldn’t – my dear departed sister would be waiting for me on the other side with one of her “not happy” looks. I do not want that.
Locust says
Now I love disco, and I love the OST to Saturday Night Fever, and I like the film a lot, but I wouldn’t call it a “joyous romp”…I haven’t seen it in a decade or so, but I distinctly remember it containing a gang rape, a suicide and lots of bleak family life and Catholic guilt. The dance scenes are joyous, but there’s an awful lot of that film that isn’t anything to do with music or dancing!
Leffe Gin says
Yes, it’s bleak. Makes Nirvana seem like the Banana Splits.
The Good Doctor says
My thoughts exactly @Locust – it’s a really grim, dark film. I was only a kid when it came out so I just remember the songs, and indeed I saw the (brilliant) Airplane spoof before I saw the actual SNF. I presumed it was indeed a joyous, disco romp so I was quite shocked when I actually saw the thing as an adult a few years later!
metal mickey says
It’s a fine movie, but actually a bleak, rather nasty indie drama that would fit well in a spiritual double-bill with Mean Streets, but just happened to have a zeitgeist-setting disco subplot and an era-defining soundtrack that made it a massive hit… it remains the only movie I can recall that was re-released in cinemas in an edited cut to get a lower BBFC rating and reach an even bigger audience…
Vulpes Vulpes says
I stand corrected. I should have inserted the word ‘musical’ into my description a few times and wound in the hyperbole. I recall a gritty tale with some very hard edges, oddly juxtaposed with some of the finest dance scenes ever ommitted to celluloid in a disco stylee. I haven’t seen the movie since approximately 1978 but a romp through the joyous soundtrack gets an airing every time I feel like a stack heeled lift. Next time I spot something lurking late on BBC4 I’ll keep it to myself to avoid a shoeing from a bunch of armchair Barry Normans.
MC Escher says
Or you could just post it to this site, and others can either agree with you or not. These threads are open to anyone and their opinion, if they disagree with you it is clearly their loss 😉
fentonsteve says
Well, I watched and enjoyed it very much. Cheers for posting, Foxy.
Kaisfatdad says
You stick to your guns, Foxy! I’ll be looking out for that documentary.
A stage musical of SNF has opened here and is rather successful. Which of course it would be with all those amazing songs and dance routines.
But I am curious about what about all those darker moments that Locust mentions? Have they just been edited out?
Perplexing.
Vulpes Vulpes says
It’s about working people in Noo Yawk with only just enough quarters to do their laundry. It’s about a tough life in a tough community within a tough city that’s awash with all the social flaws you’d expect in an American metropolis of the 1970s, but it’s also about celebrating the mental escape and the chance for unbridled self-expression that music and dancing can bring to anybody’s world, however shitty.
Kaisfatdad says
That is an excellent description of quite a few musical sub-cultures.
It made me think of salsa, Northern soul, Go Go in Washington, samba… to name just a few
I was lucky enough to Tito Puente at a club in New York a few years back. At one point the dancers made space in the middle of the dance floor and a couple launched into a remarkable piece of dancing which was breath-taking.
Living for Saturday night
Vulpes Vulpes says
Just sent you a PM
Freddy Steady says
See also Tygers of Pan Tang and Whitley Bay.
Diddley Farquar says
Wasn’t that a line from Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick? From the Tygers of Pan Tang to the coast of Whitley Bay.
Junior Wells says
Ii actually think the film is better than the soundtrack. Yes quite grim which of course makes the escapism of the disco so much more potent.
The good stuff is sublime but , as I guess is the case with most soundtracks, there is a lot of filler.
I dont think you should be put off by a bit of banter Foxy. It has prompted some great clips to be posted.
Vulpes Vulpes says
You’re right of course.
Freddy Steady says
If not, it always will be now!
Edit. In response to Diddley!
Leicester Bangs says
Weren’t there two versions? The X-rated, grim and rapey one, and then, when it became clear that a lot of under-age kids were sneaking to cinemas to see it, a PG-rated joyous romp.
On edit: oops, sorry the point’s already been made above.
Locust says
Good thing, as I missed that comment and didn’t know this about SNF. No wonder Vulpes boogied out of the cinema, if he saw that version!
dai says
Was looking for the PG version on DVD or online for my daughter a few years ago, never found it. And she is probably old enough to watch the full version now, even if not officially, I am fairly confident she has seen worse.
Moose the Mooche says
It’s pretty tame by modern standards.
Has any casting director ever struck luckier than whoever snapped up Travolta? Not since Elvis->rock’n’roll had one person had such a direct, huge effect on the success of a genre.
dai says
He seemed to come out of the blue with Grease and SNF, but was already very well known in North America from this sitcom:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Back,_Kotter
Moose the Mooche says
I did not know that.
Of course SNF falls into that great string of US films as in the Easy Riders / Raging Bulls book , which had an underground/indie sensibility but major distribution clout that put them in the mainstream. I know what I mean (he chuntered)
Vulpes Vulpes says
Maybe you should watch the documentary!
Junior Wells says
Just watched it tonight . Thanks Reynard. Excellent, lead narrator a bit tedious but there is less of him as they go on. Great detail on the bonding of actors and then the consequences of then being thrown into the harrowing scenes.
Would have liked to know just how they did synch the Bee Gees and the dance scenes that were out. I dont think they explained it.
fentonsteve says
I’m guessing Varispeed. A musician with perfect pitch might spot the music was a bit sharp or flat.
All that stuff gets complicated again when transferring the film to video – film stock 24 frames per second, NTSC video 30 fps, PAL video 25 fps.
Vulpes Vulpes says
That narrator is Bruno from Strickly. He is of course a NATIONAL TREASURE in the UK, and beyond reproach. We will overlook your provincial bias. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
deramdaze says
If it’s the same Bruno I’m thinking of (and I know many Brunos)… he was in the worst film ever made.
I mean, nice guy, but still, “the worst film ever made.”