John Travolta's Lead Performance Provides Both the Best and Weakest Parts of Saturday Night Fever

Given how pop culture has immortalized Saturday Night Fever as basically a movie where John Travolta dances to a collection of Bee Gees tunes, it's a surprise to watch the actual film for the first time and discover that this is a much darker than expected feature. Over the course of the runtime, Saturday Night Fever reveals its true colors as a tragic story about a nineteen-year-old trying to break out into his own identity but struggling to do so with his toxic group of friends and a troubled home life. I wasn't fully captivated by this John Badham directorial effort but I do appreciate how Saturday Night Fever tries to be a more introspective motion picture than its general reputation would indicate.

Nicolas Cage, John Travolta And John Woo Come Together To Create Unhinged Action Movie Fun In Face/Off

Water is wet. The sky is blue. Nicolas Cage is a whole heck of a lot of fun when doing go-for-broke performances. These are all universal truths of this world and the fact that Nicolas Cage imbues even his most peculiar performances with full-bodied commitment should be something more people should recognize instead of reducing this wonderful actor down to just a meme. You know who else is no stranger to eccentric performances? John Travolta. I'm nowhere near as convinced that Travolta is something special as an actor as I am about Nicolas Cage, but he's had his share of memorable oddball turns playing various man-animals.