Have you ever wondered why your dad has a white leisure suit deep in his closet? Probably because of Saturday Night Fever, the most popular movie of the late 70s. That was the age of disco, the age when discotheques were the place to be. People weren’t ashamed of wearing bell bottom pants or leisure suits in public. Your dad probably wore his once in awhile. Nowadays, people look back at such a time and can’t believe that disco was the pinnacle of American society, a type of music which gained its own culture and mass following, prompting the question: “Why did disco become trendy?” Who would’ve thought that this was started by Tony Manero, a 19 year-old deadbeat living with his parents in Saturday Night Live? Tony Manero isn’t a spectacular …show more content…
He constantly struggles with his place as the black sheep of his family; his brother, a priest, is clearly the favorite child. Tony, at first, doesn’t realize that he’s in a terrible place; this is exemplified by the exchange with his boss: “Fuck the future! You don’t fuck the future. The future fucks you, Tony. The future fucks you.” At the beginning of the movie, Tony’s quite happy with his monotonous daily life and uses his Saturday nights to compensate for this. However, he develops throughout the story. He realizes that he’s not going anywhere in his life. His status as the black sheep in his family is dropped, because his brother quit his job as a priest. Tony begins to dream of a better life, using the Verrazano-Narrows bridge as a symbol of such a life, one with a good job in a suburban …show more content…
Not only does Tony’s dancing accentuate his violent energy, but it also accentuates the quirks of the other dancers in the 2001 Odyssey. All of these people seem to be possessed by vitality and pride, yet Tony is clearly depicted as being better than most, if not all, of his peers. Everyone’s dancing is fluid yet strictly choreographed, showing how much these dancers, who feast on style and arrogance, can’t afford to be sloppy. So do you still believe what you’ve heard about this movie? Do you still think that it’s just another cheesy 70s disco movie? Hopefully you don’t. It has a great story. It features many great cinematic elements. It became extremely popular, even to the point at which people would sneak into theaters to see it. It was, because of that, culturally significant, kickstarting the Disco Era. But most importantly, it makes me want to wear my Dad’s old white leisure suit and dance like John Travolta at a discotheque, strutting to “Staying Alive” the entire way there. Directed by: John Badham Written by: Norman
He takes a necklace for his Gina, who is now grown into a beautiful young women and one thousand dollars’ cash for his mother. His sister is very excited to see him, but his mother not so much. His mother knows how he is making his money and is disgusted. She refuses the money he tries to give her and throws him out. This part of the movie shows a small glimpse into Tony’s past. A conversation between him and his sister, reveals that he was in the army with the communists and that is father abandoned them. It shows his deep love and protection for his sister as well as hers for him. He is able to sneak the money to her. Manny makes small comment about how beautiful Tony’s sister has become and Tony’s rage surfaces, instructed Manny to keep his mouth shut and to stay away from his
Maria had no authority over her restless family. The source of the conflict between Antonio and Maria originates from her oldest sons taking to going where they please and not caring about their parent’s wishes. The burden of pleasing their parents passes from the eldest sons to the youngest one. With the sole duty of pleasing his parents, Tony internally rebels against their wishes instead seeking to set to rest his churning mind by seeking his own beliefs. His brothers console themselves about abandoning their family by saying that “Tony will be her priest” (Anaya 36) and not knowing that the “dreams of their father and mother [haunt] them” (Anaya 36) also haunted Antonio. Having the responsibilities of his brothers and his family shape the way he grows and thinks. He isn’t just thinking about himself he also has the problems of redeeming his family on his head. Through the story and through Ultima Tony realizes that he is not bound by obligations and can instead shape his own
"No one is born a racist bigot. In other words, racial bigotry or racial prejudice is not genetically or
He commutes with the dead; the dead asks him for blessings. Just who is this Tony person! You might not believe that this is only a seven year old kid, but he is the hero of Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima. Tony is valiant, and this courage sometimes reflects his curiously precocious nature. Precocious he is, he still is in constant mental ambivalence.When I say Tony is brave, I don't mean that he fights demons or kill dragons, but rather that he stands for what he believe is right and he is not afraid to go to extreme measures to protect the people he love. He shows that he is a "man of the llano" when he "does[n't] run from a fight" even when confronted with Horse, the notorious bully (37).
After reading Richard Dyer’s “In Defense of Disco” I began to think about disco as a product of capitalism. This is something that I had never really thought of before. When I think about the hip-hop industry I think capitalism, but not necessarily disco. In this article Dyer goes on to defend disco by identifying its key characteristics, and relating them to ways in which these characteristics allow gay men to escape the pressures of the dominant heterosexual society. Characteristics such as eroticism, romanticism, and materialism are outlined within Dyer’s article. Even though Disco may have been driven in capitalistic ways, I think that it has created an environment that helps to redefine gender and sexuality. Disco, like many other genres of music, has allowed for the creation of many dynamic cultures. These various sub cultures continue to evolve and flourish over time.
Rock n’ roll gave people the voice they did not have in the early years. As the genre of music became more wide spread, people actually began to speak out. Altschuler touches on the exploration of how the rock n' roll culture roughly integrated with replaced and conflicted with preceding cultural values. Many of these values were very touch topics. Besides black civil rights, sexuality were one of the most sensitive t...
... still funny look into our recent history. With important issues that apply not only to the time the movie was made but possibly to our present and our future it offers a warning against war controlled culture and nuclear proliferation. This and the other themes of the movies are still worth considering today. The levels of hidden imagery in the film make it worth watching multiple times to try to find more of the levels and then to try to integrate them into the overall story. Like a painting by Dali you feel that every new thing you uncover has another waiting below it. The camera angles and lighting are tied into the film to turn the whole story into a smooth flowing work that is more pleasing to watch in black and white than most movies are in color. The overacting makes a few scenes in to movie difficult to watch but the rest of the film picks up the slack.
No doubt, the film became one of the most popular films of the 1970s up until the next generations for it manifest a paradigm of great marketing by exploiting to the viewers the new trends like music, lifestyle, and its ideology. One of them was the oozing and the refreshing music that must have become an ultimate bomb at the time, since Music is revolutionary; the music used in the movie becomes a pave way for the new birth of genres of dances and songs. Saturday Night Fever is a masterpiece of ambivalence and skillfully fabricated piece of merchandize that has
As with any trend, grunge began to lose its followers within a relatively short period of time, or perhaps it simply became excepted to the extent that its label changed from “fad” to “mainstream“. Grunge, much like most trends or fashions, relied upon commercialization to exist as such. When newness fades, replacements are sought and new titles created that are designed to draw popularity to address the apparent human need to represent uniqueness, but at the same time fulfill a desire to be accepted by others with similar likes and dislikes. If one (1) views history with regard to fads, it may be observed that fads do not exist unless there is mass-marketing of a concept or series of events to attain the popular interest of people.
The counterculture of the late 60’s on up to 1980 is prevalent to the history of media. New social forms arose, including the pop music of the British band the Beatles and the simultaneous rise of hippie culture. As the era continued, a vibrant youth subculture which emphasized creativity, experimentation and new manifestations of nonconformist/mellow lifestyles emerged. This emerging era influenced the media industry heavily. This short time frame in history was a definite media revolution. This era commercialized rock music, along with disco funk among other genres, the game show and variety show era, as well as popularizing mass media through magazines.
Politicians are almost always an easy target when it comes to skits and jokes. Saturday Night Live has been imitating these public figures for forever, and they have remained popular throughout the years. Not only is the fact that these actors and actresses can sound and imitate the politician perfectly, but the fact that they can make the politicians points and arguments sound so ridiculous. In the Epic Rap Battle between Mitt Romney and Barak Obama, their characteristics are exaggerated upon, and their main points of their campaigns are torn to shreds. With the rhetoric situation being the 2012 presidential campaign, the argument in the clip is that both candidates have lots of promises for the country, but neither of them are fit for the
A man who wears nothing but a cape and underpants as hero is ridiculous. Some people might think it is inappropriate hero but some people love it. The Adventure of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, is about two boys who makes comics about Captain Underpants and are pranksters in the school. The school is run by a principal that does not like children or fun. This cause the two boys to prank the principal to make the school fun for the children. Eventually, this cause the principal to try separate the two children and the children try to figure out the way to stop him. They use a hipotize ring that they got to from comic book and hypnotize the principal into Captain Underpants. They go through many adventures that are ridiculous
Instead of choosing not to grant his brothers rest because he cannot use God’s power, he decides to use the golden carp. It shows that little things are able to persuade Tony into leaning towards the golden carp and the river, and away from God. His belief in God is not as strong as it used to be, and that could influence what he will do in the
The first step in Tony?s spiritual journey is when he questions his family?s long-standing belief in the Catholic religion and his own destiny to follow their dreams of him becoming a priest. Tony doubts his abilities as a priest, even though he is not one, because his mother dreams for him to become a priest. Subsequently, he believes that he should have been able to save Lupito?s soul from wandering the river, because he will one day be required to. Whereas, ?A priest could have saved Lupito.'; (23), Tony feels guilty that he wasn?t able to fulfill his duty even though it wasn?t his. This shows that the destiny at first laid out by Catholicism may not be the one that is best suited to Tony. By not saving Lupito or his soul, the town Tony lives in is no longer pure in his eyes. The river is the lifeline of the town and once it is stained then the town will also be tainted with the murder of Lupito. Tony asks, ?How would I ever wash away the stain of blood from the sweet waters of my river!'; (23), and in doing so also questions why God puts such obstac...
Also Disco was the one music's that was to carry forward the ideas of the late 1960's "Hippy Philosophy" of "Making love not war". But with Disco music and culture it went onto carried on the Hippy philosophy of making love and not war - in more fun and acceptable way for one and all. If I do say so myself on a more grander and a more sophisticated level.