Saturday Night Fever Blu-ray Disc (John Badham, 1977)

Paramount (USA)
1.85:1 1080p
118 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, DD 5.1 French, DD 2.0 mono Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Extras: audio commentary; Catching the Fever; Back to Bay Ridge; Dance Like Travolta With John Cassese; Fever Challenge!; ‘70s Discopedia; deleted scenes

Released: 5 May 2009

Saturday Night Fever has some strong plusses, but it has equally strong minuses. I liked the movie’s unflinching look at raw, impoverished life in working-class New York City, and I liked the integrity that the main character frequently demonstrates. For example, during a time when people didn’t give much thought to safe sex, Tony Manero (John Travolta) doesn’t sleep with every willing woman he meets despite his obvious horniness. Late in the movie, he gets upset that a rigged dance contest robs a Puerto Rican couple of victory, and he gives his prize to the Puerto Ricans. He then gives an impassioned speech about how lousy it is for people to “dump” on each other (Tony’s father is treated badly at work, so he goes home and treats Tony’s mother badly).

On the other hand, ‘70s fashion is just appalling, and while other movies set in the ‘70s sport the same duds, this movie puts the clothes on a pedestal to such an extent that they date the movie in an awful way. The platform shoes that the men wear are especially silly. Also, with the exception of Travolta’s bravura one-man show-off routine, the dance sequences are all so long and so boring that I almost stopped watching the movie around the halfway mark.

Video:
Like many ‘70s movies set in the ‘70s, Saturday Night Fever has a dark, damp look. The 1.85:1 1080p image is filled with grain, which gives the movie a gritty feel that is appropriate given the raw language and the characters’ economic fortunes. Although the Blu-ray’s video superiority over previous home-video versions is immediately evident, the use of soft-focus and dry-ice fog reduce the movie’s overall sharpness.

Audio:
While lively, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English track is front-biased and light on resonant bass despite the movie being set in a disco club for much of its running time. This is to be expected given the recording technologies of the production era. The re-mixed audio is fairly wide across the front, though the music is sometimes a bit thin.

Extras:
First up is an audio commentary by John Badham. You can also watch the movie with the “‘70s Discopedia” text commentary.

“Catching the Fever” is a collection of featurettes that cover the movie’s production and reception.

“Back to Bay Ridge” takes a tour of the movie’s primary neighborhood.

In terms of extras related directly to the movie, you also get three deleted scenes.

“Dance Like Travolta With John Cassese” teaches viewers some of Travolta’s choreography.

“Fever Challenge!” is a bare-bones version of videogames like the Dance Dance Revolution series. Basically, you follow some basic dance steps that appear on your screen, though without a controller pad, there’s no way for the disc to keep track of how well you’re doing.