The music documentary series knows as Music Box has offered surprisingly rich insight with their films about Kenny G and Alanis Morissette and Woodstock ’99. The latest entry, Mr. Saturday Night doesn’t dive as deeply as the others and, unlike Alanis and Kenny, Robert Stigwood, the titular subject has been dead for 5 years.
So there’s that.
But Mr. Saturday Night puts a face behind the name that everyone knew in 1977. Back when we bought records, we came to know the labels. And this label was seen by tens of millions of people who bought the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
So, Stigwood was the Australian impresario who produced the movie that was a genuine phenomenon that year, and the soundtrack album that had 4 number 1 songs and several other Top 40 hits. The album drove people to the movie, and the movie created buyers who wanted a sonic souvenir from the movie they’d seen. Stigwood was a brilliant businessman – he had signed Travolta to 3 movie deal while he was still a sitcom actor. He made Saturday Night Fever on a very modest budget, and then repeated that circular formula with Grease the next year.
There have already been very good docs about The Bee Gees and about Studio 54, and even about the life and celebrated death of Disco. This doc kind of skims the surface of those subjects, which makes it a quick and easy primer for the uninitiated, but the film is a mile wide and an inch deep.
As for Stigwood, we don’t learn much about him personally. He is seen in old Merv Griffin Show clips and long forgotten interviews. We learn much more from unknowns who were influential, but largely were in the shadow of the spotlight. There is nothing knew from Barry Gibb or Travolta – I don’t know why director John Maggio was unable to secure their participation.
But I have said a million times that I will watch any music documentary in front of me, and I’m not sorry I watched this one. I either didn’t know or forgot long ago how the story of Saturday Night Fever came about: it was based on an article in New York magazine entitled “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night“, which was a particularly interesting angle for me.
On a personal note – I am not one of the of the 40 million people who own the soundtrack album, although 7th grade memories will always include the Bee Gees previous album Main Course, which still sounds amazing, No, I was too cool for Disco. Now with age and what little wisdom that imparts, I can see the musical artistry within the genre. If nothing else, this doc makes a solid case for that revelation.
Mr. Saturday Night is streaming on HBO Max.
