ROOTS ROCK

Mana (Auckland), Volume 2, Issue 3, 4 May 1978, Page 8

ROOTS ROCK

This film contained some sound foundation for a good story but as a result of the ‘cutting up’ by the censorship board, the story was lost. If it had been screened uncut may be then the R certificate would have been understandable. This version certainly did not deserve an age restriction. It only served to encourage the under sixteens, who really groove into disco, to break the law to see the dancing. Some credit must go to John Travolta (Tony), considering that he came practially straight from a sweathog in ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ (T.V.) to a sweathog with a little more class and in a film with such potential as Saturday Night Fever, he handled it and the dramatics Very well.

I did not like the vibes received concerning the two women most involved in his life. The beautiful Italian disco lady who was in love with Tony and couldn’t see past just ‘making it’

with him, and the fairer Miss Stephanie McDonald who had more self-respect and priorities as a woman, thank goodness it was made clear that she was a ‘have’. But still not enough credit was given to the dark beauty for never losing her self-awareness. This baby knew where she was at all along.

No! These faults cannot be written off as ‘well, that’s the script’. It was people who wrote and produced that film and the majority of them were white males and that was their politics coming through. A good film all in all, but would have been better if it had been left undefiled.