--- title: "Saturday Night Fever: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/saturday-night-fever/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/saturday-night-fever" critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 12 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Saturday Night Fever (1977): what the critics said Critics' score 64 from 12 reviews: 8 positive, 2 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics respond positively to Saturday Night Fever, with praise clustering around John Travolta’s performance and the energy of the dance sequences. The reviews find both confidence and vulnerability in his Tony, giving the film weight beyond its disco appeal. Several also value the harsh portrait of Brooklyn life beneath the music, seeing racism, violence and frustrated ambition as central to its account of growing up. The spread is wide, however, and the social drama divides critics more than Travolta does. The New York Times finds the story losing momentum, while Sight and Sound sees conventional plotting and gaudy direction undermining the disco sequences. Opinions also split over whether the music retains its vitality or sounds dated, and whether the treatment of sexism is sufficiently critical. Variety offers the sharpest dissent, dismissing the film as exploitation with a clumsy story and an unconvincing sense of its setting. ## Los Angeles Times — Peter Rainer Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 August 1993. The film stands up remarkably well, especially Travolta’s performance, the disco numbers, and the Bee Gees soundtrack. It remains great fun with vitality in its kitsch and heartfelt energy on the dance floor. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-12-ca-23039-story.html) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Arthur Knight Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2024. The critic calls the film a kick that grows more involving as it explores the rites of passage of urban teenagers, praising Travolta's magnetic performance, Badham's way with actors and sense of milieu, and the musical supervision. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/saturday-night-fever-review-movie-john-travolta-1236078636/) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 December 1977. The film gets at something deeply romantic: the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you’d like to be. Travolta is an original presence with raw sensuality, and the dance scenes are among the most hypnotically beautiful pop dance scenes ever filmed. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/12/26/nirvana) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 22 November 2002. The review notes that the film is a rich slice of Italian-American life in Brooklyn with post-Scorsese grit and surprising ugliness beneath the disco image, praising Travolta's balance of softness and sharpness and Badham's use of extreme angles and steadicam. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/saturday-night-fever-dvd-1798198062) ## Empire — Rob Fraser Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic notes that the film deserves better than its kitsch reputation, highlighting its dark themes of racism, violence, and date rape beneath the disco surface. They praise John Travolta's compelling performance as Tony, calling it mesmerising and underrated, though the musical sequences have dated. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/saturday-night-fever-review/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1977. The film is a very good, hard-edged look at tough, cynical Brooklyn kids who live for Saturday nights at the disco. It balances the dazzling musical and dancing sequences with funny and self-destructive moments, highlighting John Travolta's central performance as the confident but troubled Tony. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/saturday-night-fever-1977) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 16 December 1977. Travolta is so earnestly in tune with his character that Tony becomes touching and a source of fierce excitement. The music and dancing move with real spring, though the story begins to flag after the initial high spirits. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/16/archives/screen-the-prince-of-bay-ridge.html) ## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 10 May 2009. The critic finds the film well-intentioned in presenting disco without glamour and Tony's social yearnings but criticizes the dated, overplayed Bee Gees-heavy soundtrack and shallow execution, preferring a different musical approach. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/saturday-night-fever-bd/) ## Time Out — TR Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The film is really about growing up, interpreting this as growing out of a disco mentality into personal relationships, and the Tony-Stephanie dynamic is played dead straight, making it extremely funny up to a point. The real killer is the movie's abject sincerity, and it fails to deliver a decent exploration of discos themselves. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/saturday-night-fever) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). The critic finds the disco sequences effective but criticizes the frenetic direction and optical effects for turning them gaudy. The script undermines the central disco element with conventional, creaking social drama and fails to capitalize on promising moments. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/features/ultimatefilm/chart/details.php?ranking=68) ## Variety — A.D. Murphy Fi1m's normalised score 10/100 (inferred from the text). 13 December 1977. The film is a shrill, vulgar, trifling and pretentious exploitation picture, an updated '70s version of cheap rock musicals with a clumsy story and awkward direction. The disco milieu is a slapdash backdrop to teenage exploitation rehash. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1977/film/reviews/saturday-night-fever-2-1200424088/) ## Collider — Rebecca Schriesheim Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 13 April 2024. The critic views the film as a dark exploration of toxic masculinity and working-class struggles in 1970s Brooklyn beneath its disco surface and iconic dance sequences. She singles out John Travolta's layered performance for praise while noting the film's mixed success in critiquing versus romanticizing the era's sexism. [Read the review](https://collider.com/saturday-night-fever-dark/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/saturday-night-fever.md