It's one of Hollywood's most iconic opening moments – the camera sizing up John Travolta as he struts down the sidewalk to the Bee Gees in Saturday Night Fever (1977) – and one that was, to hear critic and filmmaker Elvis Mitchell tell it, more or less a brazen steal from the Black cinema of the era.
"Every generation gets its own Elvis, or Eminem," Mitchell quips in his new documentary Is That Black Enough for You?!?, as he cuts between Travolta's prancing Tony Manero and Richard Roundtree's formidable entrance to the 1971 blaxploitation classic Shaft, their propulsive theme songs and sartorial swagger an unmistakable echo of each other.
"An off-white take on Black cool," Mitchell says.
