Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Some movies capture a historical moment so perfectly that in retrospect it is impossible to unravel which came first: wisecracking disco Lotharios or Saturday Night Fever (1977). Set in a Brooklyn neighborhood where the furthest horizon is limited by the tenement across the street, this paean to unrealized, unarticulated ambition presents John Travolta in his legacy-ensuring role as a handsome, rhythmically blessed Italian youth whose main claim to fame is that he routinely wins the weekend dance contests at his local disco. Travolta gives us a fever by showing off his bod, but keeps his disco balls tucked away. But Paul Pape shows a brief buns shot that makes up for it!