Staying Alive

Unlike its successful predecessor, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever received extremely negative reviews. Critics slammed the film for replacing the dramatic depth of the original film with a series of cheesy dance sequences. But for lovers of the 1980s era of garish gaudiness and "hard body" films, this is a guilty pleasure. It is Sylvester Stallone's only directorial effort not starring himself (unless you count a minor Hitchcockian cameo), with John Travolta reprising his role as Saturday night disco king Tony, this time spending several months in the gym before filming. Stallone then made his physical transformation the main attraction of the film, which is largely a showcase for Travolta's chiseled physique. The funniest feature is the fact that Stallone essentially made the film a dance variation on Rocky. A lot of the plot unfolds in the kind of rhythmic montages that Rocky brought to eighties movies. In them, Tony, an underrated amateur dancer aspiring to become a professional, goes through dance trials and hard physical training while overcoming his insecurities and emotional imbalance to wipe out any doubters at the end. The strained relationship between him and the experienced dancer Laura then culminates in the final dance performance, which is de facto conceived as a duel. The final show is a perfectly overstuffed display of 80s music video aesthetics. And believe me, you'll only experience such an eccentric audiovisual massage a few times in your life. (18/08/2023)