On the Waterfront
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1989. | ||
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On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg.
Why It Rocks
- During all the hysteria when various workers in the movie industry were accused of being communists, Malcolm Johnson – author of a series newspaper articles in which the film is ultimately based on – was accused of being a Communist (which at the time was the surest method of silencing an object) and ironically Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg testified as friendly witnesses before the HUAC, as they “named names”. This decision would play a role in what would eventually become On the Waterfront, a film that depicts informing in heroic terms
- Brilliant acting from just about all of the major actors, especially since they used personal, emotional memories to create their characters
- Marlon Brando completely owns nearly all of his scenes with his role as Terry Malloy, especially the scenes where he's fighting against his conscience and wondering he should report the thugs. His role is universally considered to be one of the pinnacles of screen acting. Brando’s skills allowed him to combine opposing emotions, such as tenderness and toughness, or guilt and defiance, into moments that Kazan called “small miracles.”
- Karl Malden as Father Barry is a pivotal role who's based on real life Father John Corridan, serving as a priest whose meetings helped expose the corruption in the longshoremen's union.
- Lee J. Cobb portrayed Johnny Friendly, the mobster controlling the union
- Rob Steiger appeared in his second film as Terry’s brother Charley
- Cinematographer Boris Kaufman’s work for the film – despite being influenced by the neorealism popular in Europe, is perhaps more noteworthy for its meticulously exposed landscapes.
- Kazan gives the film a gritty visual look, with palpable cold and fog.
- The film's centerpiece is a five-minute scene in the back of a taxicab between the Malloy brothers. In this moment, Charley warns Terry not to testify against the union and Terry in turn accuses Charley of sabotaging his boxing career. This is easily one of the most iconic moments in 1950s cinema, to the point where it's used in classes and acting textbooks. And get this, the only reason the scene's limited to one cramped space was due to the film's limited budget, although cinematographer Boris Kaufman's able to work around this by playing with the lights to give the illusion that the car was moving. It also features Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger at the absolute top of their game.
- "I could have had class, I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody."
- The scene in which Terry and Edie walk through a park is famous for its physical improvisation. When Saint pulls her gloves out of her coat pocket, one of them accidentally drops to the ground. Brando picks it up but doesn’t return it to her, even though Saint clearly tries several times to retrieve it from him. Instead, he delicately plays with the glove, even putting it on as they continue talking. The unscripted action injects a marvelous subtext, wordlessly expressing his vulnerability and their sexual chemistry. Working with Brando was exciting, Saint said, because “every time he said a line, it was always different” from take to take. “I would answer differently, and it just felt like we were really talking, and not actors working.”
- When Terry confesses to Edie his involvement with her brother’s death, as Father Barry watches from a distant vantage point, the director does not allow the audience to hear the confession. Instead, he creates a clever montage of sound and image to express the emotions of the moment. The audience already knows what Terry's telling her, and Kazan understood that hearing it again would only feel repetitive.
- While it’s tempting to view the film as groundbreaking, it fits into the creative elite’s growing disillusionment with postwar society. While the crew deserves credit for addressing union corruption, they were far from the first filmmakers to do so. Maybe the film should be seen in the tradition of the 1930s social realist films from Warner Brothers, which exposed problems and offered solutions, no matter how simpleminded. Although Kazan worked with a new generation of actors and equipment that helped with location shooting, the formula was similar to those 20 years earlier. (such as westerns, William S. Hart morality stories, and the like)
- Although arguments were common over what the film actually means – as a courageous drama, or an apologia for snitches – Kazan claimed that when Terry yelled at Friendly that he was glad what he had done, Kazan was saying with identical heat that he was glad he testified as he had.
External Links
On the Waterfront at the Internet Movie Database
On the Waterfront on Rotten Tomatoes
On the Waterfront on Metacritic
On the Waterfront on Letterboxd
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