Word: manero
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sounded like a match made in show business heaven. John Travolta: instant superstar when he strode down a Brooklyn sidewalk, the white-suited knight in a grungy Camelot, as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever; consolidation of stardom in Grease and Urban Cowboy; a sensitive actor with a stud's lean physique. Sylvester Stallone: instant superstar when he laced up his gloves and socked it to the champ for the full 15 in Rocky; consolidation of stardom in Rockys II and III, which he directed as well as wrote, mixing sentimental bravura with slam-bang action sequences...
...budget 1977 sleeper that was based on a magazine article, Saturday Night Fever took in some $145 million at the box office. For his long-planned sequel, Producer Robert Stigwood, 48, persuaded John Travolta, 28, to repeat his role as Tony Manero in Staying Alive. The star agreed, but on the condition that he be allowed to map out the film's story line. Not missing a trick, Stigwood also hired Sylvester Stallone, 36, to direct the film. As Travolta and Stallone have planned it, Staying Alive will move Tony up six years and into Manhattan, where he lands...
There is a whole future in that ellipsis, which does not take away an inch from Travolta's interpretive skills. A closer look at Fever will reveal both an actor who works his tail off and a man with a sharp eye for stage business. As Tony Manero, he strides down that block of Bay Ridge swinging a can of paint like a talisman, and when he stops for a snack at the corner pizza stand he orders two slices, then eats them one piled right on top of the other...
...with his ideal dance partner, he provokes an admiring question ("Did you make that step up yourself?") and a neat reply: "Yeah . . . No. I saw it on television . . . then I made it up." The modification, and the contradiction, were Travolta's invention, and they say a lot about Tony Manero's stubborn pride and restless insecurity...
...movie were only the dancing, interspersed with a few shots of Tony Manero at work or at home, it would fail miserably. Luckily, the film goes much deeper than that. The central dynamic in the film is the increasing tension between Tony and his Bay Ridge world. Tony is growing up, moving apart from this Italian ghetto. And that growth is immeasurably accelerated by Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney), another Bay Ridge dancer whom Tony meets at the 2001 and with whom he inevitably falls in love. Stephanie looks down on Tony and his neighborhood because she works...