On The Waterfront (1954)

Karl Malden, Marlon Brando & Eva Marie Saint

One of the great classic films of all time.

'On the Waterfront' is a classic, groundbreaking film drama made in 1954, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Steiger. The film was extremely successful with the critics and at the box-office it brought in receipts of almost $10 million from a budget of under $1 million. It is the story of an ex-boxer turned longshoreman who fights against union violence and corruption. It conveys a powerful and uplifting message about society's ills.

The film received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. In 1989, it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It is ranked the 8th Greatest American film of all time by the American Film Institute. In short, it is quite a film.

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'I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.' One of the all-time great American films, 'On the Waterfront' exploded on a country shaken by the betrayals and paranoia of the anticommunist scare. Searing and tender, it ushered into Hollywood a new kind of hard-hitting social realism, not least because it was filled with indelible performances from a number of New York theater's hot postwar generation of naturalistic and Method actors.

Slow-witted but sensitive Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando, never more beautiful), a failed boxer turned longshoreman and errand boy for corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), is disturbed by his unwitting role in the murder of a disaffected docker. His guilt is exacerbated when he falls in love with the dead man's sister, Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint in her film debut), but heartbreakingly by his older, smarter brother Charley (Rod Steiger), who is Friendly's sharp lawyer and right-hand man.

After Edie shames the initially ineffectual parish priest (Karl Malden) into leading the crusade against harbor union racketeering, Friendly's intimidation turns more deadly. Terry painfully defies the code of silence and testifies at a congressional commission. Despite doing the right thing, Terry is is ostracized for 'ratting' by the waterfront community and is beaten to a pulp in the dockyard before his fearful comrades fall in behind him, breaking Friendly's hold on their lives and labor.

The film was most visibly inspired by 'Crime on the Waterfront,' a series of newspaper articles by Malcolm Johnson exposing racketeering in the New York/New Jersey dockyards. Playwright Arthur Miller began working on a screenplay at the behest of director Elia Kazan. But when Kazan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Miller broke with him. Kazan turned to a fellow 'friendly witness,' writer Budd Schulbg. Both men's reputations suffered permanent damage and 'On the Waterfront' is frequently labeled their apology or defense. Kazan admitted he identified with Terry Malloy's conflict of loyalties. Wherever one's sympathies lie, the painful real-life background invested the film with a gut-wrenching, truthful emotional center for the realism of its subject and setting and for the naturalism of its performances (complimented by Leonard Bernstein's evocative score).

Kazan believed that post World War II audiences had a need for gritty realism and he achieved great authenticity by shooting the movie over just 36 days on location in Hoboken, New Jersey in real locations - bars, houses, rooftops, alleyways. Many of the extras were real longshoremen also.

Terry confronting Charley in the back of a cab is the most often cited classic scene, but there are many other unforgettable moments: Brando fiddling with Saint's little glove, putting it on his own hand; Terry discovering that all his lovingly cared for pigeons have been killed by the neighborhood boy who admired him; Terry beating down Edie's door and forcing an admission of love as they slide down to the floor in a desperate kiss.

The movie endures as an unflinching contemplation of betrayal. There is no doubt that it is an unqualified masterpiece and fifty years on we can still feel the power of the dialogue and the intensity of the acting.