Paid In Sweat: STAYING ALIVE - 40th Anniversary Screening!

Decorated disco-dancer-turned-instructor Tony Manero (John Travolta) tries to carve out a career on Broadway, when his fellow dancer and girlfriend (Cynthia Rhodes) gets him an audition for the sexy new Broadway show. He makes the cut, and gets all fired up for the naughty principal dancer (Finola Hughes), causing tension among the threesome on their journey to stardom.

A final installment of the Magic Mike franchise is coming next year. Soderbergh promises a thirty-minute dance finale. The character will have his last dance.

If that excites you then you have one film to thank: Sylvester Stallone’s dance spectacle Staying Alive! It ran so Magic Mike XXL could sprint. The franchise has followed the same trajectory as its predecessor: Magic Mike went from serious family drama with titillating stripteases to comedic buddy road trip, with (very welcome) gratuitous dance. Staying Alive also shifted genres from its successor, Saturday Night Fever, which was a dark coming-of-age film with disco that switched to a sexy, Fosse-esque underdog love story about self-worth—drenched in sweat.

Stallone is brilliant at translating self-worth to screen. He reinvented the cinematic underdog, and with two Rocky films under his belt he was the perfect fit for this film—and he delivers. In the moments you wish for music, more splash, and more dance, just like that, a button seems to be pushed, in that very second, to delight. Stallone also brings in a melodramatic soundtrack with tunes that you can make love to and tunes that make you want to punch the sky. He manages to take familiar, confident Tony Manero from the boroughs, and turn him into a fish out of water, blinded (at first) by the bright lights of the city. He pushes the limits of the character’s dreams, self-respect, and his respect for others, and paints a picture where he can be the go getter, and the risk taker, and stay true to himself. It is fascinating and fun. Tony is certainly deserving of his last dance. - VANYA GARRAWAY

STAYING ALIVE

USA | 1983 | 93 mins | PG

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone

Starring: John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood and Frank Stallone

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