Saturday Night Fever

Although all of the movies we screened in this class are relevant to the 70s and to their respective genres, I felt that this film was the most relevant to me personally. I have spent the better part of my life in an Italian neighborhood, growing up with Italian boys that are now Italian men. Although we were on the Near West Side of Chicago, and not New York City, and we grew up in the 90s and not the 70s, there are definite parallels that can be drawn.

The boys I grew up with lived in a segregated little Italian pocket in a community filled with wonderful homemade food and regrettable old-school racist attitudes. The Italians over there have always protected their little pocket of land, known locally as "the Patch," and, until recently, managed to hold on. The boys found strength and safety with each other, and they also managed to exist as big fish in their little pond. Their family lives were not unlike those depicted in the movie, although some of them had it much worse.

Let me stress that the boys I grew up with did not gang rape women and did not dance. Most of these boys found themselves in monogamous relationships at young ages with the girls they ended up marrying. I don't know if it's the times that changed, or if my boys are truly a different breed than those boys in the film.

Saturday Night Fever gave me a new understanding of my friends. When I asked my boyfriend if he had ever seen this movie, he looked at me incredulously as if he were surprised that I even had to ask. Apparently this film is a big hit in that world, and I now understand why.