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Rebirth When
Atari Corporation bowed out of the market in
the late 1990s, we knew we could abandon any hopes of exciting
new hardware bearing the Fuji
symbol (and as far as Atari computer users were
concerned, this was already the case when the
Jaguar platform became the sole product line in a drastic
slimming down of operations). It was also
inevitable that another company would soon buy the
rights to use the trademark on consumer products,
to cash in on the past glory of the name. Enter
Hasbro Interactive. I remember the very strange
feeling of walking into shops and seeing the
Atari name again, it didn't seem right,
not least because of the thoroughly cheesy and
quite unnecessary re-design of the Atari logo, on
pre-school toy coloured boxes of re-hashed games from bygone
decades. Admittedly I've since actually played
some of these updated classics and on the whole
they weren't bad at all but was this supposed to be innovation?
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Just
what is Infogrames trying to
communicate with this mish-mash
of logos? It makes a big fuss
over the re-emergence of Atari
then puts it alongside a group of
less famous names as if it was
no more important. So what was
the point of using the
Atari brand?
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Hasbro Interactive
obviously
didn't have much of an idea what to do next with
the Atari name. The two were later acquired by established games developer and
publisher, Infogrames. It has recently been said the
Atari name is no more than a trademark that
Infogrames slaps on second-rate driving games.
For sure, whatever virtues CEO Monsieur Bruno Bonnell
may extol of the new, "re-invented" Atari,
the fact remains this is no longer Atari the company
and probably never will be ever again. Nevertheless,
Infogrames appears to be more determined than
Hasbro in its effort to promote the brand. After
a shaky start and despite something of an identity
crisis at the moment, the old Hasbro-styled
Atari logo has been thankfully discarded (but not before
it was painted on the roof of the stands at
a football stadium near London Heathrow so it
could be seen from the sky by thousands of airline
passengers every day, aargh...), and
the Atari web site shows what new games we can look forward to. We'll
judge them on their own merits and tell you
whether they're worthy of the Atari name. The
biggest of these is undoubtedly the follow-up
to 1999's smash hit for PC, Unreal Tournament.
Unreal Tournament 2003 is finally out now and
we look at it this month.
You got nothin'
to be afraid of, your mother's
spaghetti sauce don't drip. It don't taste,
and it don't drip... Arriving
almost at the same time as UT2003, finally
it's here, the even longer awaited Saturday Night Fever
in glorious digital on DVD! I thought Region 2 would
have to wait as usual, but since it's an old
film and Paramount seems to have deliberately
held back for its 25th anniversary (it's not
as if the technology to do it wasn't there,
even if we account for restoration work), a
staggered release would probably make as much sense
as Infogrames' dilution of the Atari brand on
its products.
I snapped up
my copy at London Oxford Road's Virgin Megastore
for an unbeatable £17.99 (then found it at my
local Tesco for £15.99, fool). As befits a commemorative release,
it comes in a special glossy card sleeve case
rather than
the more usual (and more durable) plastic keep
case. The artwork is printed on a silver,
holographic base making it look suitably glittery.
Unfortunately the Saturday Night Fever logo
looks like it's been re-designed by a hip and trendy
crayon-wielder who hasn't even seen the film.
It also has, "John Travolta" above
it in big letters, true modern day Hollywood
style. Wow, really?! A further dollop
of "D'Oh!" is added by the slogan
on the front boldly proclaiming, "The quintessential
disco movie"... Oh, dear.
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The
SNF logo on the left (VHS) is
how most of us remember it and
is the one on every poster I've
seen, too. Compare with the
DVD (right) which, even worse,
seems to vary according to the
region version!
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By now you've
probably worked out that I think many things
are best left alone, yet it continues...
On the back of the case,
at least one of the still shots is back-to-front
(reckless or intentional?) and the sleeve notes have been dumbed down.
Here is the text from the uncut VHS copy I
bought in 1996 followed by the new version for
comparison:
Old Oscar-nominee
John Travolta gives a sensual and intelligent
performance as a local disco kingpin at the
peak of his popularity. Once a week, after six
full days of work in a Brooklyn paint store,
Tony douses himself with Brut cologne, dons
a floral bodyshirt, gabardine pants and platform
shoes - and ritualistically prepares himself
for "Saturday Night Fever."
Through the
influence of Stephanie - his more sophisticated
dance partner - and Tony's brother - a disillusioned
priest - Tony begins to question the way he
views life and the narrowness of his perspective.
The disco dance sequences and the Bee Gees'
music make the film an accurate and absorbing
barometer for the seventies' generation.
New John
Travolta gives a sensual and intelligent performance
as the troubled Tony Manero - Brooklyn paint
store clerk by day and undisputed king of the
dance floor by night. Every Saturday, Tony puts
on his wide collared shirt, flared trousers
and platform shoes and heads out to the only
place where he's seen as a god rather than just
some young punk. But in the darkness, away from
the strobe lights and glitter ball, is a tragic
story of disillusionment, violence and heartbreak.
Without a
doubt, Travolta's performance made him a Hollywood
legend, but Saturday Night Fever is more than
just a movie that defined the music and fashion
of a generation. It's a powerful and provocative
urban tragedy that carries as much significance
today as it did in 1977.
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Look
at that Special Features
heading - it's the Atari logo
font with a Saturday Night Fever
stylization!
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Paramount
did a good job here, the film looks the best
I've ever seen it - details I never noticed
before suddenly leap out (scratches and scuffs
on the dance floor at Odyssey 2001, for
example) and there is little print damage and
colours are well saturated. Definition is not
too shabby considering the film's age. Early
on, in the opening sequence with the red credits
that are almost a distant haze on VHS,
we see clearly legible text even though
it hasn't totally escaped the smudged effect.
It's a 1.78:1 anamorphic presentation with 5.1
Dolby Digital mix, and at 114 minutes, it's
not the hacked-down PG version. There's a good
selection of extras including interviews, rare
footage of Travolta rehearsing those Manero
moves (not all of which made it into the film)
and a director's commentary, plus subtitles
in no less than 14 languages.
Let's go!
Shiuming Lai,
Features and Technical Editor
The
year of '77
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Saturday Night Fever's theatrical release was 16
December 1977, three
days after Bill Gates
of Microsoft was arrested
in New Mexico for a driving offence.
Other notable arrivals of '77 include
Atari's VCS 2600, Matthew Bacon
and the Volkswagen Golf GTI. In the disco scenes, Tony Manero orders "77" beer. |
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