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Emily Tsiao
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Movie Review

On October 11, 1975, producer Lorne Michaels gears up for the biggest night of his career. NBC has given Lorne the green light to air a 90-minute late-night variety show filmed live. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for the twentysomething producer.

There’s just one problem … make that several problems.

The show’s writers are inebriated. The set, a converted radio studio not built to house heavy film lights, is catching fire. The sound system is wrecked (and even if it wasn’t, the sound producer doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing). The crew is in open revolt. And Lorne’s crack team of comedic actors—future legends Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and John Belushi—are physically assaulting each other.

Lorne assures his boss, Dick Ebersol, that he’ll pull it together in time. But that’s when Dick informs him: The network doesn’t want Lorne to succeed. They’re just using Saturday Night to manipulate Johnny Carson, host of the already very successful Tonight Show, into accepting their syndication terms.

Well, I guess Lorne is just going to have to prove those NBC execs wrong. But he only has 90 minutes to figure it all out, or the network is pulling the plug.


Positive Elements

Lorne Michaels believes in his show. He believes in the cast, the crew, the writers, everyone involved. And somehow, he finds it within himself to rally and inspire them through his own determination. He never gives up. And by the start of the show, everyone has come together in harmony, giving it their all.

Spiritual Elements

One NBC employee is responsible for enforcing broadcast standards of decency. She exclaims that she is a woman of God after she catches the writing team sneaking inappropriate phrases into the script (assuming she’s too prudish to recognize them). Fed up with her, one writer tells her the story of Christ’s birth and death describing it as a man raping a virgin and then publicly mutilating and killing the resulting child on a cross. He then says, “I am Satan,” which is repeated by others in the room in reference to the 1960 film Spartacus.

Someone recounts the Greek myth of Prometheus after seeing a statue of the Titan. Folks mention yoga rituals. One person burns sage in a cleansing ritual.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Many of the sketches written and performed by the Saturday Night gang are crass, filled with double entendres and sexual innuendo. The writers take it as a challenge to squeeze as many sexual terms and phrases past the aforementioned NBC decency employee. Characters are often vulgar offstage as well. (There are jokes about prostitution, oral sex, incest, infidelity and sexual fetishes.)

A man makes some crude and objectifying statements about women. He then flirts with Chevy Chase’s fiancée. When Chevy confronts him, the man flashes his genitals for all to see.

A woman wears a sweater that leaves little to the imagination. Several female cast members wear outfits that can be a bit revealing. We see a few male cast members in their undergarments.

Lorne is married to Rosie Shuster, one of the show’s writers. However, their marriage is on the rocks. We learn early on that Rosie is dating Dan Aykroyd, even bringing him back to her and Lorne’s home some nights. However, this allegedly isn’t why their marriage is failing. Rather, Lorne doesn’t see Rosie as a wife. He sees her as a business partner whom he was sexually attracted to for a brief time. Lorne reluctantly seems to accept this, simply waiting for Rosie to decide whether she wants to continue their relationship or not. And it’s clear what her decision is when she tells the folks in the control room to credit her with her maiden name instead of her married one. (In real life, Lorne and Rosie divorced five years later.)

Rosie and Dan (despite their adulterous relationship) are also very flirty with other cast members. Dan in particular frequently kisses and grabs his female costars. People repeatedly smack others’ rears. Rosie uses her charms to convince several actors (including Dan) to perform sketches they’re uncomfortable with.

In one sketch, Dan, who’s wearing a tank top and short shorts, struts around set as his female costars (dressed as male construction workers) whistle, catcall and grab their groins. The scene culminates when Dan bends over and one of the women thrusts her hips at his backside in a vulgar demonstration. Dan is clearly uncomfortable with his revealing costume, but Rosie, as already mentioned, persuades him to embrace it.

Several of the show’s writers mock puppeteer Jim Henson, writing crude dialogue for his Muppets (one of whom is particularly busty) and placing those characters in compromising positions backstage (though we don’t see this).

Violent Content

People begin fighting on set several times, grabbing and tackling each other. One man sports a bloody nose after getting into a fight. John Belushi throws an ashtray at Chevy Chase after Chase makes a joke about Belushi’s weight. Someone shoves a clothing rack, sending it careening down the hall where it breaks a glass fire axe container.

We hear some writers hung the Big Bird puppet from Sesame Street by its neck in Jim Henson’s dressing room (and they joke that it was “erotic asphyxiation”). Someone pitches a sketch about a woman accidentally slicing open her arteries while cooking, thinking it would be funny. There’s a joke about suicide. Someone jokingly sings a song about using a shotgun to commit mass murder.

A man suggests that an actor will “waste away” and eventually die by falling out of a window while intoxicated.

A large set of lights falls during rehearsal, narrowly missing several actors. They then ignite, setting a couch on fire. A man sets a script on fire and throws it out a window. Lorne uses a stanchion to break a window after he accidentally gets locked out of the building. Several jokes revolve around fake blood.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear more than 70 uses of the f-word and at least 25 of the s-word. There are also a few uses each of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–k,” “h—” and “p—y.” We also hear a single use of the c-word and a number of crude slang terms for genitals and sex.

We hear nearly a dozen misuses of God’s name (twice paired with “d–n”) and an equal amount of Christ’s name, too.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Characters here drink and smoke left and right. A man takes an opportunity to light his cigarette with a burning stage light. One scene takes place in a bar. When a young man (too young to drink) enters a room full of drinking and smoking NBC executives, an executive places a drink in his hand, which he promptly hands off since he doesn’t think he should be drinking.

One of the show’s guest stars offers “medical grade” cocaine to a cast member. Later on, John Belushi takes it from his costar (after allegedly smelling it on him) and snorts the stuff. Another man nearly overdoses on cocaine, getting lockjaw. Dan Aykroyd recognizes the symptoms and massages the man’s jaw to help.

Most of Saturday Night’s writers smoke marijuana. And they trick Neil, Lorne’s assistant, into taking a few puffs. The young man, who has never been inebriated before, goes into a state of extreme paranoia, locking himself in an office.

There are jokes about alcoholism and drug abuse.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Garrett Morris, the only Black cast member, wonders why Lorne hired him, noting that the only characters that he plays stereotype his race. As the night goes on, he realizes he was hired for his talent, not his skin color. And he jokingly sings a song about killing “whities,” which gets lots of laughs from everyone on set.

We hear some racial and sexist remarks. There’s a joke about Alzheimer’s. Characters gamble backstage. Someone quotes Hitler. A few people lie.

People hurl insults nonstop. Rudeness is common. Lorne’s inability (or perhaps his refusal) to cut sketches from the show stresses out everyone involved. Belushi also stresses people out by acting a little diva-ish and refusing to sign his contract until the last possible moment (because he feels unsure if his acting talents are worthy of Saturday Night).

Some crew members laugh at a man hired to lay bricks instead of helping him finish the job.

Conclusion

If you’ve ever seen an episode of Saturday Night Live, you pretty much know what to expect from a movie about its creation. Actually … maybe you don’t?

Although the occasional f-bomb has slipped past censors in the show’s run, it’s usually been an accident, given the show’s often ad-libbed nature. But the film Saturday Night has no such qualms. Rather, the creators accepted an R-rating from the MPA and threw in more than 70 uses of the profanity, among other foul terms.

Audiences of the popular late-night television show have also never been subjected to nudity. Not so here. A man puts himself on display as a way of degrading Chevy Chase’s character. It’s cringey, gross and immature. But weirdly, that might not be this film’s most offensive offering.

Determined to slip as many inappropriate sex jokes into the script as possible, one writer verbally attacks the show’s decency enforcer (a Christian woman). He vulgarly describes Christ’s conception as God raping a virgin. And he goes on to say that Jesus’ death on the cross was God publicly mutilating and killing His child.

NBC executives repeatedly ask Lorne what Saturday Night (the show) is supposed to be. He eventually comes up with this: “It’s everything you think is going to happen in the city.”

Well, Saturday Night (the movie) could be summed up as this: It’s everything you wish wouldn’t happen in any city.


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Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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