Film Forum

(1977) John Travolta’s Tony Manero struts down the streets of Bay Ridge, eating two pizza slices on top of each other, all to the music of the Bee Gees. And then there’s Saturday night at the 2001 Odyssey disco. 35mm. Approx. 119 min.

Reviews

“15 percent disco, 85 percent a grueling and heartbreaking look at a go-nowhere schnook (who can dance).”
– Matt Prigge, Metro

“DAZZLING. [Badham’s] camera occupies the dance floor so well that we really do understand the lure of the disco world, for all of the emptiness and cruelty the characters find there.”
– Roger Ebert

“John Travolta is so earnestly in tune with the character that Tony becomes touching and a source of fierce, desperate excitement. The movie has a violent energy very like his own.”
– Janet Maslin

“Tony’s pent-up physicality draws us into the pop rapture of this film.”
– Pauline Kael