Tony wants to be seen, desperately, as heterosexual, exemplifying ‘the difficulty that some men have in relating to women as comrades and friends and not simply sex facilitators’ (Ebert, See Footnote 1). He bullies homosexuals, he has posters of both ‘macho’ men and pin-ups. He ‘can't really see women at all, and in the cruel closing scenes he makes a half-hearted attempt to rape Stephanie, and then sits in the front seat of a car while Annette is being raped in the back by two of his buddies’ (Ebert). I would like to put forward the interpretation that the underlying reason for this is, once again, like Michael and like Arturo, is the desire to not be vulnerable to the Other.

Multiple scenes highlight this paradox, but, as Christodoulou tells us, none of them as much as the grooming scene.

“This almost playful juxtaposition of signifiers of homosexuality and heterosexuality reaches its climax in an indicative sequence of images at the end of the grooming scene. A shot of the Bruce Lee poster on Tony’s wall cuts to a reverse shot from the perspective of the poster as Tony looks in the mirror and imitates the same pose [...]. However, just when the narcissistic display of Tony’s body threatens to challenge his heterosexuality, the film cuts to a poster of Farah Fawcett. Her wide smile, presumably at the sight of Tony’s penis, affirms its heterosexual use” (13-14).

We might even say that he is like Arturo Bandini in some respect. Both Arturo and Tony deny a, respectively, racial and feminine identity in order to rid themselves of vulnerability to the Other (Arturo wants to rid himself of vulnerability through whiteness, Tony, is pressured by his father and friends, to rid himself of vulnerability through being a ‘man,’ even while engaging in feminine activities). However, both paths lead to a psychologically unstable position. Both are reified in, respectively, racial and gendered identities. In Tony's case, we see his anxiety expressed in the train scene of Saturday Night Fever; we see him in distress and grief over the previous night's events, and we see him contemplate his actions which complete his character arc (complete with Dutch tilt).

This untenable position, one of self-denying (i.e., denying one’s feminine identity or, as Butler might say ‘the political constitution’ of the self) hardline “straight heterosexuality,” resolves itself in the final scene. Stephanie and Tony sit at a windowsill, framed separately by a division in the living room window, after a disastrous night for both of them. Tony asks for reconciliation. She, challenging Tony, asks if “he could stand being friends with a girl.” Although Tony is unsure, she accepts his request and she crosses the division in the window showing his acceptance of the feminine.

One looming question is: how does this hypermasculinity relate to his ethnicity? Do we see, in Tony, an element of John Gennari’s Frank Sinatra? In other words, do we see a similar sort of Sinatra-esque masculine performativity in Tony? We might say that Tony, at the beginning of his character arc, while not necessarily an “OG,” puts up a “Sinatra-ladies-man” performance. As a resolution of his inner conflict, he becomes “a true heir [of Sinatra embracing,...] the femininity at the heart of their musical art and soul” (Gennari 71).

Notes