What was the movie that propelled John Travolta to stardom?

Is it Saturday Night Fever or Grease?

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Never seek the wind in the field - it is useless to try and find what is gone - "Kane & Abel by Jeffery Archer"

Saturday Night Fever (1977).

It was a surprise HUGE hit at the boxoffice, and it earned Travolta a nominatin for Best Actor at the Oscars (Richard Dreyfuss actually won for The Goodbye Girl).

Grease was released the following year, making Travolta an even bigger star.

Of course Travolta was already a TV star on "Welcome Back Kotter" before Saturday Night Fever, he had gotten good notices in a made-for-TV movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (aired in 1976), and he had a featured supporting role in DePalma's Horror flick Carrie (1976).

But it was definitely Satyurday Night Fever that made him a gigantic movie star.

I don't know what film made Travolta, But, Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981) is frankly superb. Best decribed as a combination of Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1968, GB) and the Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), I'd recommend it to Travolta and De Palma fans alike. Look out for John Lithgow's performance. Electric.

I'm not really a huge Brian DePalma fan, but I LOVE Blow Out (1981). Of his early work, I think it's his only true masterpiece, and far and away my favorite DePalma. It was a critical success when released, but not a financial one, so it didn't do much for Travolta's superstardom to the masses (Urban Cowboy, released the year before, was a bigger hit).

Frankly I'm not a big Travolta fan either - I feel he has a very limited range. But when he is right for the material and it's a good movie, he CAN be quite good. For me, Blow Out, Get Shorty, and Pulp Fiction are the only times it's all come together perfectly for Travolta in his career as a movie star (post-Grease). Well, those three plus Look Who's Talking Now and Battlefield Earth, of course.

Trivia:

What was the name of the sequel to "Saturday Night Fever?"

I liked his character in Swordfish a lot. Of course, there was a pair of other things I liked in that movie too

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Travolta's breasts?

"Staying Alive"

Say what???

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Oh, like you don't know, Spud. Travolta is like a walking Dinty Moore commercial.

Wasn't it sad when Dinty Moore and Bruce Willis got divorced? If even THEY can't stay together, what hope have we mere mortals?
:bawl:

Better yet, allow me to quote Colin Quinn discussing the Jane Fonda/Ted Turner divorce: "Ya know, if two wide-eyed kdis like that can't make it, what hope is there for the rest of us?"

I agree with Saturday Night Fever propelling Travolta's career...and I also believe it was Pulp Fiction that revitalized it after a string of flops.He was going down,and Pulp brought him back.

I'd say Pulp Fiction did it for his acting rebirth.

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Chris... that was just a little... awkward.

If you substitute "Halle Berry" in there, then you know my answer.

Yeah, I knew what you meant...but let's face it, Travolta could use one of them Manzieres. The dude is chubby...not even fat, just REALLY chubby. He is chubbiness defined. That was my basic point...perhaps it was lost on all of you. Oh well.

What was funny about Pulp Fiction and Travolta that I found funny was that it was only one of several times that a movie was hailed as Travolta's comeback. In the case of Pulp Fiction, it was probably true. But it was annoying hearing that relatively soon after hearing all about how "Look Who's Talking" was such a big comeback for Travolta.

It makes me wonder if his next critically acclaimed movie that does well at the box office will also be hailed as a huge comeback film for him (since his recent works such as "Battlefield Earth" and "Lucky Numbers" were critical and financial flops. And "Swordfish" was a critical flop even though it made some money). The man has more "comeback" films than he has chins.

I totally forgot about Look Whose Talking, that was probably it, even though pulp fiction was a better movie, thats probably true

That's totally true.I think he just makes really unwise choices.After his sucess in Pulp Fiction,he went on to do Get Shorty,another good film.It looked like he was on the right track and then...oops! Broken Arrow.Damn.

Either Saturday Night Fever Or Grease, i think Saturday... came out first??????

However Pulp Fiction was the movie which re-invented him.

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