a character study: tony mareno

"saturday night fever"
dir., john badham
1977

i can't think of very many films where so much is revealed about a character within the first three minutes of the film. not only is the audience completely aware of the time and mood of "saturday night fever" (new york in the late 1970s), but there is such a defined sense of the film's complex hero tony mareno (john travolta). he's sexist, self-absorbed, and a child of blue collar america with dreams of socio-economic stratification. sex drips dangerously from his pores and as much as he radiates it, he craves it by piercing his eyes on every pretty young thing that passes him on the way to work. he stops for a moment to compare his shoes in the window of a clothing store to remind himself of the american dream of prized solitary ownership of possessions and relishing in capitalism. and that's just before you find that he's also racist, homophobic, and a conflicted catholic. you may scoff at the idea that there is actual substance in a film that became iconic for its flash in the pan portrayal of disco, but i think this movie is fascinating on many levels. it's a seedy and sexy look at new york in the late 1970s when disco, the pre-9/11 hometown brand of terror as personified by david berkowitz, blackouts, and the pre-disneyfication of new york were the norm. it's also an interesting study in a man compelled to create and perform. art is tony mareno's salvation and that is what makes "saturday night fever" such a resonate film.

"saturday night fever" is simple in its approach and reminds me in shades of federico fellini's "i vitelloni." a group of man-children indulge in the comfort of the home environment with the intention of never realizing their full potential and leaving home for bigger and more adult consequences. tony is surrounded by the typical neighborhood ne'er-do-wells, but realizes that his fever to dance will propel him beyond the tedium of saturday nights at the local disco with his buddies. however, he is not encouraged by his friends and family because he's a man and he should find a job and become a good catholic. this entrapment repulses tony. he needs to be on a dance floor in order to feel alive, but he must juggle the duel life of satisfying his friends and family. when he isn't doing the hustle, he lives at home with his traditional italian-american catholic family who repeatedly try to dissuade him from dance by inflicting religious guilt and comparisons to his favored faith abiding sibling. he cruises for feathered-hair follies and hurls racial and homophobic insults to local denizens to appease his unmotivated friends. his friends and family need him to survive, but it's clear that tony only minds them because he senses that his life will soon be committed to expression.

tony's dancing style is provocative and entrancing to watch. the floor clears for him as he attempts to impress his conflicted priest older brother and friends. tony's expression of his sexuality is conveyed brilliantly in this scene. he moves with such an ease and athletic power that it is not difficult to move to the side and be in awe of his dancing prowess. tony's moves are a neo-pop interpretation of the sublime athleticism of gene kelly, but married with something new and exciting. it's also interesting that it's primarily men who watch him and are impressed by him. yes, the women swoon and get a little misty over his dancing, but it's his friends and brother that commentate on the action. they watch him with such keen concentration that you begin to wonder if it's some sort of quiet admiration of tony's sexual and physical expressiveness. it would be a lazy observation to call this interaction between tony and the men at the disco homo-erotic because it picks up on the complicated part of male heterosexuality where sex is power and tony's power is envious but commendable. the men are more impressed by his intuitive blend of sex and power rather than fantasizing about what they could do with it and him.

the camera lovingly gazes at tony throughout the film, especially during his big solo dance number. so much of this film is tony being looked at. his family look his clothes and disapprove of his interest in polyester and seduction. his friends look at him dancing wishing they could only be half as good in bed as tony is on the dance floor. his dance partner, stephanie, looks at his raw talent and reassures him that a life can be lead of creative expression and contentment. the camera looks at his toned, dancer body. the camera eye never strays away from fetishsizing tony's body. in the opening credit sequence there are numerous close-ups of his feet and low angle shots of his torso and face. in another scene in which we find tony getting ready to go to the disco, the scene naughtily opens on tony zipping his snug bell bottoms as he moves his swaying hips. the camera moves up to his pretty boy meets thug face where he runs a comb through the forest of dark hair atop his head. this gaze of the male form is unfamiliar in most classical hollywood cinema. the gender reversal of the male gaze that is so rampant in sexualizing the female form in film, is somehow more sexual and voyeuristic when turned on tony. chopping up and objectifying the male form in the frame is rare in film. the film gives us permission to believe that we can be as moved by tony's sexuality as any woman's.

tony mareno is the definition of an anti-hero. he's a little bit of stanley kowalski in "a streetcar named desire" mixed with a little bit of guido from "8 1/2." his pure and human urge to dance and express himself contradicts his ruffian lifestyle of learned prejudice, quest for the carnal in the backseat of his car, and saturday night with the boys that paralyze his desires for a more fulfilling life. he does redeem himself in the end, but it's more of the realization that for many in order to live is to create.