Staying Alive (1983)

I think, one thing I didn't really take into account when I started this project back in August 2020... was that I would eventually hit this kind of plateau with terrible movies where it definitely feels more of a chore than it does feel enjoyable. It's true enough that I've had this problem before now which is why I started to relax it a bit and introduce Disney Week and FTW Week to kind of vary things up, but I don't think I ever really accounted for the fact that there would be a significant chunk of movies on my list that would just be really unappealing, mundane shit that I have little to no interest in actually watching. Staying Alive is one of those movies. The 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever - a movie I've never watched - sees the return of Tony Manero trying to make it as a dancer in Broadway. Directed by Sly Stallone of all people? And named after that song by The Bee Gees that featured heavily in the first movie, it already smacks of trying to capitalize on past glories and I haven't even got passed the title yet. I think it would be a fair criticism to make that maybe I'm not giving this movie the real kind of dedication that it deserves having not watched the prequel beforehand. But I will be honest with you, I have little to no interest in watching Saturday Night Fever and I don't even like The Bee Gees. I mostly just want to get this one over with really so I can tick it off the list. I'm kind of hoping that I can just go in with no knowledge of the first movie and it will all just kind of make sense in the context of the movie? But uh yeah, let's see how that goes?

Following the events of... whatever happened in the first movie... Tony Manero (John Travolta) is currently working as a dance instructor and a waiter at Fatima's Dancehall, living in a hotel and doing his washing in the shower. Glamourous. After bumping into Sylvester Stallone (Sylvester Stallone) on the street - yes he makes a cameo in his own movie - Tony tries desperately to "get something going" by pitching his services, in err dancing that is, to various studios across town but with no success. Later, after being encouraged by his, presumably fiancée Jackie (Cynthia Rhodes) to come and check out one her shows, Tony shows up but is immediately entranced by the female lead of the show, Laura (Finola Hughes). After unsuccessfully trying to hit on her, they part company with Laura having at least invited him to audition for a bit part in her next show, which just so happens to also be a show Jackie is involved in. After the audition, Laura and Tony cross paths and the pair start to become more romantically involved. But when Laura kicks him out for the evening, Tony tries to booty call Jackie but with no success. I, err... didn't watch the first movie in case that wasn't clear but yeah this Tony guy is a bit of a jerk? After receiving a phone call Tony gets offered the part and is ecstatic at finally getting to star in a Broadway musical, he arranges to meet Jackie after her shift at work - singing in a bar - but is distracted along the way when he bumps in to Laura getting out of her massive expensive car with a much older man who appears to be her partner, with Tony seemingly being the 'bit on the side'. Obviously disappointed he ends up standing up Jackie that night. He apologises to Jackie the following day at their rehearsals but when Laura crosses their path and speaks to Tony with a spike of jealousy, Jackie quickly vanishes and Tony and Laura argue, Tony seemingly not happy about being used as he sees it but Laura reacts spitefully and viciously, accusing Tony of also using her. After rehearsals, Tony and Jackie make plans to meet up but Laura immediately follows up and invites Tony out at the same time, a completely different person this time to the person he spoke to last time? Tony chooses Laura because the guy is a dickhead... Tony arrives at the party and it's quite obvious that Laura is outstandingly wealthy, with hints being dropped about her wealth before now. When she enters the party with the Director of their show, Jesse (Steve Inwood) Tony is at first apprehensive but Laura puts him at ease before the pair proceed to argue about what is and what isn't their relationship with Laura seemingly interested in somebody else at the party this evening. Tony goes crawling back to Jackie, to her credit, despite confessing she is in love with him refuses to let him treat her as 2nd choice and says she will be his friend but nothing else. Mate, should be grateful with that to be honest... Maybe feeling something of a serious guilt trip, Tony ends up going back to his momma's house, where he tries to apologise to her for having an attitude and treating her badly but a pep talk from his mum about his attitude seems to perk Tony up and ends up back at the rehearsals again the following day. He gets talking to Jackie again and for some reason she gives him a... 3rd? 4th? chance and promises to meet him later in the evening. Tony asks for Jackie's help to learn the lead male dancers routine, with hopes of approaching Jesse and asking him for his spot after the pair clashed at rehearsals earlier. After rehearsing all night, Jackie convinces Tony that he has a shot at it and Tony finally apologises for treating her so poorly and tells her he loves her. At the rehearsals next day, Tony finally makes his move when Jesse, sensing the tension between him and Laura, is interested to see how their chemistry would work out, but the routine breaks down midway and Tony storms out. Pursued by Jesse the pair argue and Tony ends up walking out and quitting but he comes back immediately and Jesse gives him a second chance. After seemingly putting their feelings to one side, Tony and Laura are able to gel and impress Jesse enough that Tony is installed as the leading man. It's the night of the big show and both Tony and Laura are decidedly nervous but they absolutely smash it and the first part of the show goes off without a hitch, that is until right at the end as the audience applauses, Tony leans in and plants a kiss on Laura, not in the script and Jesse is furious, ordering the curtain to drop. Laura is also furious, scratching at his eye and calling him a bastard. Jesse scalds him and tells him to focus on the show and the following scene appears to go off without a hitch. Laura approaches Tony at the end, apologies for raking his eye and asks if they can meet up to talk, but Tony, maybe finally having grown up and got a little bit of sense says he has "other commitments." Laura responds by telling him he doesn't have "it." So in the following scene, Tony goes massively off script and completely takes control of a scene, disposing of Laura during a dance move and proceeding to dance a solo, completely stealing the show and earning a standing ovation as the show ends. After the show rather than sticking around to enjoy the revelries, Tony thanks Jackie for her help and the pair kiss as Laura watches on, scorned, and Tony proceeds to leave, strutting down the streets of Brooklyn having accomplished his dream of headlining a Broadway show.

Hahaha why does this keep happening?... So uh yeah, didn't hate this to be honest. Ok some caveats. I know nothing about dancing, I know nothing about disco music... I like Hall & Oates does that count? But yeah to me it's just dancing. I can appreciate it when it's good, but it's pretty much in the same way that I appreciate a nice painting. To me, it's just a painting? Or a nice meal. But to me it's just food? I'm not going to profess to be some kind of expert in performing arts or dancing. So I don't know, a proper expert might watch this and say: "ugh they were all over the place?" or words to that effect. But yeah, as a casual, I thought this was ok. Lifted by the fact that John Travolta is in it, obviously, but similarly the supporting cast also do a good job, the storyline was fine if not a little bit predictable, the musical numbers although not to my taste were suitable. Yeah, it was fine?

I think, for me, the bit that err... pardon the expression, struck a chord with me the most comes with Tony Manero as a character. He is by design a fairly unlikeable character with how he treats Jackie and projects his own feelings onto Laura, who doesn't treat him particularly fairly by any means but he's not 100% in the clear. So he is by design, unlikeable, even if he does go some lengths to try and redeem himself mid movie he still has those selfish and spiteful moments even in the second act. But yet, you sort of can't help yourself but end up rooting for him. And that is outstanding character work. Regardless of how you feel about this movie, it's subject matter, it's portrayal. I don't think that there is any question that how Tony Manero is written and produced as a movie character is top quality stuff. And naturally John Travolta is very good at it. You don't need me to tell you how good an actor John Travolta is. He isn't just phoning it in here, you can tell he's putting the effort in for this one and his physique is incredible... It's clear he was dedicated to this movie and he puts in a performance to match.

But I think credit should also go to Cynthia Rhodes as Jackie and Finola Hughes as Laura who are both in essence the supporting roles in this movie and both do a fantastic job of being the female figures that Tony bounces between throughout the course of the movie. John Travola could potentially carry an entire movie himself, probably not beyond him in his prime, but he doesn't need to here and the pair are both incredible in their roles being equally as convincing in terms of talent at dancing but also in portrayal as characters. I think Jackie get's done a little dirty in being the slightly, downtrodden, lacking in self esteem kind of person that she's portrayed as, and she absolutely deserves better but I guess she gets what she wants out of this movie in the end.

Storylinewise the movie is mostly fairly entertaining if not a little bit predictable. I was starting to piece together where the movie was going with Tony eventually taking on the role of the leading male about a third of the way in, and in that respect I guess it's a bit of a stale movie trope. And how the story was painted with Tony eventually going back to the love interest that he should have stuck with in the first place, again a slightly stale and predictable movie trope. But I can't deny that it at least made for an interesting plot and I was invested enough that I wanted to see how it developed and how it all came together at the end. There was a bit of a plot hole in that Laura's connections to wealth and status are never really fleshed out and explained, and characters very often took the path of least resistance in order to execute a plot device: the Director letting Tony have his shot, Jackie taking Tony back, Laura succumbing to Tony's charms, Tony rejecting Laura at the end e.t.c so there was a lack of originality in that regard, but it was least entertaining and enjoyable I guess as a result of that.

In terms of technical production it was mostly petty top notch, there was some over use of the extreme close up, noteably during scenes involving John Travolta and they were really playing to his strengths as the handsome male lead, but otherwise there was a good and varied use of a lot of different and interesting camera angles and framing, particularly with the dancing set pieces and the montages to keep the movie exciting to watch. And the soundtrack that was layered over pretty much the entire film was mostly disco numbers or Bee Gees songs which, again not to my taste, but was suitable and fitting for the movie. Some of the musical numbers in the actual production the movie was based around were a little err... questionable... but I'm gonna let it slide.

So at this point I thought, well: ok. How did this movie end up on this venerable list of 'the worst movies of all time'? So on that tangent I broke the golden rule and I went and read the criticism before I finished typing this post. And it appears most of the criticism leveraged at it seems to come from the fact that it dramatically pales in comparison with it's predecessor. Which I think circles round nicely really to the points I was making at the beginning: that I've never seen Saturday Night Fever. And I think, I do kinda feel like I've missed the point a bit now. And that maybe I really ought to have watched the first movie before going into this one. And that maybe it would make me feel different about it.

So I guess ultimately I'm coming away from this feeling like I've kind of failed to a degree. I mean, it earned it's spot on the list owing to how bad of a movie it is in comparison with it's forebearer. And I did give a better kind of care and attention to my Exorcist II review not so long ago, having decided to first watch the prequel before covering it. But then that got me thinking. Is it really right to label a movie as one of the worst of all time when measuring it against it's prequel? Shouldn't a movie be taken for merit based on it's own achievements as a standalone production and not have to feel like it needs to live up and exceed the performance of it's predecessors? I err... don't really have an answer to that question if I'm being honest. I guess it's quite philosophical. But what I can tell you, and I guess what I am taking away from this is that Staying Alive is not one of the worst movies ever made. Oh no. Not even by a long shot. It's not even one of the worst sequels ever made. Nope the Exorcist II for now retains that crown for me, although even that was a halfway semi-ok movie... mostly... There are much, much worse movies out there that have this one beaten hands down, hung, drawn and quartered for being absolute cinematic bum gravy, some came before 1983 and some came after it. This movie... this movie is just fine. It's a little bit cheesy, it's a little bit predictable and it's potentially not to everyone's taste. But I enjoyed it and I mostly watch sci-fi and action movies when I'm not subjecting myself to the worst kind of trash ever recorded in front of a camera. So if even I liked it it honestly can't be that bad. 3 out of 5. Yeah that's right. A 3. What of it?