Director John Badham looks back at his disco classic four decades later.
John Badham: Isnt that weird?
To the drama school.
Probably thats where I learned how to adapt to whatever the story was that we were telling.
When I started directing television and film youre changing styles and genres and things every week.
I had been prepping that and looking at every musical number ever done.
Would you like to do a musical for us?
What they were asking about was the movieSgt.
Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
But then all of a sudden they said No, were changing our mind.
We need you to do this movie calledTribal Rights of the New Saturday Night.
And my response was Thats great but can we change the title?
Have we got anything else?
They said Well, were thinking of calling itNight Fever.
I said How boutSaturday Night Fever?
Yeah, yeah okay well do that.
So there you have it in 90 seconds a weird career path.
Yeah, actually my editor said to me Gosh nobody goes to discos anymore.
I mean why are we making a movie about this?
I mean almost any kind of culture or group there was a disco for it.
Shooting there was a lot of fun.
Do you remember when you went, was the floor still there?
My production manager was saying Why dont we get this thing out of here?
I said Lets leave it.
Leave it for them.
It will cost you more to move it.
Just leave it alone and let them have it.
Theyve been so nice to us.
And their responses just floored me but gave me a grounding for how I saw the people.
They said Well we would just walk away.
We wouldnt watch these people at all.
Youre making us stand here and applaud for them and we wouldnt even watch them.
I think a lot of the success of the movie is how grounded it feels.
It feels like a very real world.
Were there any scenes in particular that you were eager for people to see 40 years later?
Well Im so glad we got these two scenes, the main ones, back in.
And I think youd have a hard time putting that in a movie today.
Theyd say, Well you cant do that.
That makes us hate the main character.
But we wanted to put it back in because we think its honest.
People dont suddenly become all pure.
Thats whats great about the movie.
Hes not a heroic figure.
Hes got a lot of growing still to do by the end of it.
Yeah and I think we understand that.
What was Travolta like back then to work with?
How well he understood (it) and how interesting he makes scenes work.
Some of the funniest lines in the movie were improvised by him on the spot.
And we were all falling down laughing because it would be so clever, the things that hed say.
And he shows her some little dance step and she mimics it and does it.
Says, Oh thats pretty cool.
Did you make that up?
And Travolta improvises the following line.
He says, Yeah I made it up.
Well I saw it on TV and then I made it up.
And its just so perfect.
Its not like a joke.
Its just like the thing that a kind of awkward kid would say.
And its just so delightful.
To what can you attribute that to?
But their behavior and attitudes and so on really continue to resonate with us.
And people all the time say to me, I just saw the movie again.
I forgot how powerful the characters are…theres really a lot there that kind of sits with you.
So all the credit in the world goes to Norman.
Your next film afterSaturday Night Fever,Draculawith Frank Langella, will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2019.
Well we absolutely could do some work on it.
We were in the days of Betamax, not even VHS.
And so the copies that are out there could do with a lot of restoration.
Theres fabulous photography in there and the great John Williams score in addition to Langella and Laurence Olivier.
Its a very romantic look at the Dracula phenomenon.
That scene down in the mines when they encounter the undead Mina terrified me when I first saw it.
Oh Im so sorry.
Im glad to hear it worked for you but Im sorry it scared you.
And I was in terrible trouble with my wife.
What do you mean you showed Kelly that?
Saturday Night Fever: The Directors Cut is out on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday (May 2).
