Barry Miller

Saturday Night Fever is one of those movies that comes along and seems to change the cultural temperature in a flash. After the movie's release in 1977, disco ruled the dance floors, and a blow-dried member of a TV-sitcom ensemble became the hottest star in the U.S. For all that, the story is conventional: a 19-year-old Italian American from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (John Travolta), works in a humble paint store and lives with his family.

If they really got what it takes, it's going to take everything they got. Seven classes a day and a hot lunch. That's what New York City High Schoolifor the Performing Arts guarantees. Stardom? That's something the school's teenage musicians, actors, dancers and dreamers strive for. Fame sings the body electric, celebrating the growing-up process of honing talent, confronting realities, finding love, living life.