Note: This post was amended approximately six hours past the time of original writing.
aka SHIT guys I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to tell you this movie was co-written and directed by Sylvester Stallone!
As I feel is the case for most people, it's the times when my brain is the most tired that my thoughts tend to be the most darkly repetitive.
(Determining brain-tiredness vs. body- or soul-tiredness is a skill I am only beginning to acquire.)
Although it is my reflex now to turn toward pop music at these times, it's been my experience that pop music can really inflame my various anxieties and obsessions, if they are prone to inflammation.
Nope! When my brain is tired and my thoughts are too, music is NOT what I need. I need a dance movie.
And LAWD, did I find one.
*
What if I told you that there is a sequel to 1977's disco hit Saturday Night Fever? And that it is called Staying Alive? And features John Travolta reprising his role as Tony Manero. . .but this time he's trying to make it as a modern dancer on Broadway? And that the show in which he is eventually cast is a sexy S & M disco interpretation of a man traveling through hell called "Satan's Alley"? And that the entire movie is basically one long, ridiculous dance sequence? And that the music was provided by the Bee Gees?
And that the villain of the movie is a bearded choreographer/director who wears knee high boots and large cardigans who literally lurks and skulks around the theater, evilly smoking? And that he gives an impassioned speech midway through the movie about how the only way this Sexy S & M Disco Interpretation Of A Man Traveling Through Hell can work on Broadway is if the dancers really sell it, really feel it, really act as human interpreters of body language?
and then
what if I told you it is available on Netflix Instant?
*
I will caution you: Staying Alive is not an endeavor to be attempted lightly. You must have a high tolerance for young John Travolta and his meaty, passionate face.
I will also note that I actually think this is quite a good movie ASIDE from the inherent kitsch value (which is of course through the roof).
But the reason why I chose this and not any other movie I've watched in the last two months to feature on In Bed With Amy Wilson is because
well, I don't know. It's because
it seems to sum it all up, what I've been trying to say. You've (I've) got to really sell it, really feel it, I suppose.
Yrs,
AW
PS Staying Alive also features the best closing lines I have EVER seen in a film EVER.
EVER.
(ever!)
NOTE ADDED SIX HOURS LATER:
Seriously, guys! This movie was directed by Sylvester Stallone. In 1983. He apparently is an idiot savant.
