1. Carefully read the Handout, "Saturday Night Fever."
2. Answer the questions that follow...
- How does Ebert describe the political and musical atmosphere of the 1970s? What does he suggest Disco music and dancing provided for young people in this environment?
- Why might Disco have been particularly appealing to people from working-class backgrounds? What did it provide them that they might not have found in their everyday lives?
- What does Kael suggest about what Disco dancers got out of dancing? What does she mean by “the need to be who you’d like to be"?
- Look at the last sentence of the Kael quote. What is Nirvana? What is Kael saying not simply about the characters in Saturday Night Fever but about why Disco was so popular with young people in the 1970s?
3. Answer the following questions...
- What does Tony tell his father about when and where people say positive things about him?
- What word is used to describe Tony when he is on the dance floor?
- How are the people at the disco dressed? What kind of atmosphere does the disco offer?
- Based on what you have seen in the trailer, why do you think this movie was so successful? Why did it help to make Disco music, and the kind of dancing it encouraged, so popular?
