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Why ‘Stay Alive’ Isn’t Clunker Rotten Tomatoes’ Statement


Director Sylvester Stallone’s “Stay Alive” (1983) isn’t quite the flop that Reagan-era film reviews lead you to believe, although it does deliver a decent amount of camp.

Up to the third act, it’s a simple-minded portrait but involves a creatively unstable artist trying to assert himself as a force of nature besieged by decisions. personal and professional incompetence.

Maybe I’m writing about Stallone in this era (maybe, or maybe not) as much as protagonist Tony Manero, the lead role once again played by John Travolta.

It opens… no, not right. The movie is not “open”. It’s explosive, with ’80s headband/footband-enhanced headers and dance moves toward you.

The young but equally gruff Kurtwood Smith was observing an energetic Broadway audition, as Stallone was already in full MTV-powered editing mode.

Manero now works at a low-rent disco club, serving the kind of young and dull patron he used to be. While Manero has time and again shown interest in Jackie, his almost patient and long-suffering girlfriend (played by Cynthia Rhodes), Tony is obsessed with another dancer. , the rich and terrible Laura (Finola Hughes, very well a sultry, charming actress).

Tony, Laura, and Jackie end up performing together in the most modern of Broadway productions called “Satan’s Alley,” which is hilariously and quite accurately described as “a journey through through hell”.

“Stay Alive” is dynamic and highly entertaining, exactly what the sequel to the late 70s disco-centric original should be. The worst thing about it is its cinematic lineage, as Stallone’s approach, as both narrator and filmmaker, is a flashy counterpoint to a slick, gritty approach. than by John Badham through “Saturday Night Fever.”

Stallone’s movies really can’t compete with Badham and don’t even try.

If anything is to be significantly alleviated, it’s that the grit of “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) is harder than anyone remembers. The mention of sex from a club patron is just as harsh as this PG-rated movie.

However, considering how popular the PG-rated version of “Saturday Night Fever” is, there’s something wierd about making the sequel more accessible. How does this give authenticity – along with “Nighthawks,” this is the ugliest-looking Stallone movie ever set in New York City, during the Ed Koch/trash on the streets era.

RELATED: HOW VILLAIN STOLE ‘NIGHTHAWKS’ FROM STALLONE

Travolta has never looked better on film, and his performance shows consistency – the character is still driven and talented but no smarter than he was a decade ago.

Tony isn’t weak – he’s still the same moron he was back in Brooklyn, however, in Stallone’s hands, he’s more like Balboa than Manero. The film lives off of shots of Travolta turning around and looking straight into the camera, as Stallone stares down at his star.

Helping to keep this grounded, with any sense of moral dilemma, is Rhodes, cast as the long-suffering girlfriend. Between this movie and “Dirty Dancing,” Rhodes is the Meryl Streep of ’80s dance movies.

Stallone’s approach reflects MTV’s aesthetic and storytelling that will maintain a solid appeal to most mainstream films throughout the decade. The actor turned director may not be respected for his work behind the camera, but if you watch this movie and “Rocky IV” (1985) side-by-side, you’ll know it’s the same director. to act.

Is Stallone an auteur? Maybe it’s too early for the film critic community to recognize him as much, but technically the answer is yes.

Stallone’s storytelling is muted, as this is as simple as it is. Just listen to his dance lingo: “Lie down, Butler, stretch!” “I thought I was going down the stage – now it’s on the stage!” Stallone’s dancing acumen is questionable, as is his understanding of how a Broadway show goes.

Considering how dramatic the events of opening night were, you’d think Stallone was treating this as the final climax rather than the beginning of a long series.

The scene where Tony was rejected for a series of jobs is no joke, very similar to the scene that appeared a year later in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” (1984). The scene between Tony and his mother (Julie Bovasso in the welcome return to the role), where the film belatedly accepts its lineage as a sequel to “Saturday Night Fever,” is the golden one.

So does the big scene between Travolta and Rhodes, when Tony finally says exactly the right thing to her. This scene is Stallone’s best, though it’s not hard to see why it works — Stallone set it up just like he did with the Rocky and Adrien scene.

Stallone also knows how to shoot and speed up edits in the editing room, which helps him a lot during the climax. The good news is that the third act of “Stay Alive” is unforgettable. The bad/actually better news is that “Satan’s Alley” is hilarious.

Is Stallone thinking, instead of “Cats”, why not just do Demons? One strange thing is how the movie doesn’t talk about “Satan’s Alley” but essentially becomes what it is, as we sink deep into the world of dry ice / concert lights / grumble dance moves of a brilliantly bad Broadway musical.

The amount of lasers, jumps, and thrusts is amazing, as is the Heavy Side Layer-like end.

FAST FACT: “Stay Alive” couldn’t match the box office power of 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever” ($94 million) but still grossed respectably. 64 million USD according to Box Office Mojo.

Stallone failed to make a movie with a legacy like “Saturday Night Fever” and instead created a box office hit that most people then and now mock. Still, Stallone deserves credit for making a behind-the-scenes rehearsal drama that surpasses only Richard Attenborough’s tedious “A Chorus Line: The Movie” (1985) (1985). in all respects, but also predicting how flamboyant and enticing future Broadway attractions will become.

This is 1983, a year in the seemingly eternal reign of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” Stallone’s film taking place before Broadway became ludicrous, with films like “Starlight Express,” “” Carrie-The Musical” and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” around the corner.

If anything, Stallone’s insistence that audiences become witnesses to “Satan’s Alley” seems downright prophetic. Today, along with the “Book of Mormon.” The show will hardly seem outrageous, let alone commercial risk.

Tony’s mother asked him to do a “no nudity” show: apparently she watched “Oh! Calcutta” and “Hair.”

The only thing more relevant to the question of whether Tony has lost his soul to his career (or “Satan’s Alley”) is who will win the battle of the “Stay Alive” soundtrack; for about 90 minutes, it was a battle between the Bee Gees and Frank Stallone for domination of the soundtrack (Far From Over by Frank Stallone gave him the edge, as well as appearing in a supporting role in his brother’s film). that).

By the way, before “Satan’s Alley” started, we heard someone backstage say, “Yo, Adrien, broken leg!”

Mr. Stallone, you are shameless.

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