On the Waterfront (1954)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Crappy film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Marlon Brando has been said to be the best actor ever and..rightly so. One cannot forget his stellar performance in The Godfather. However, it is in On the Waterfront the he is at his best, his sills peak. But this review is not about Brando (not only) we will get on to that later on. This is a piece of writing that is aimed at reviewing one of the greatest movies of all time.The clue is in the very title. Brando's character, former pro-boxer, works down at the docks. How did he end up there? I do not want to give away more than it is strictly necessary but...let us just say he go involved with the wrong people. In this sense, the movie help the American society to wake up to what was going on at the docks in New York, its endemic corruption and racketeering. And we all know that once you are dragged into the mob world there is no turning back, no one is going to pull you back out of it. Or...is there somebody? When a beautiful woman comes along to shatter Brandon's life once again, this time around in a positive way, this ex boxer finds some badly-needed courage and will try to turn things around.

You would think the equilibrium for cinema would be more than a mere one two punch sort of combo, that for a great film to be made it'd be required that it would master a number of things, not simply make sure it contains a couple things.Here, Marlon Brando plays the sensitive big man, ex-prize fighter. The whole idea of the film is there's a mafia in town that's forcing an omerta city-wide and a few like a priest or others are standing in its way calling it out for its oppressive ways. So far, nothing revolutionary. Brando and Eva Marie Saint and the other actors all do a really good job at their roles. So far, we're at standard level.Brando is linked to some key members of the 'mafia' mob including the big boss and tries to help out Saint's character, who's lost her brother earlier in the film. So he's torn between trying to help her out from goodness of heart and purity, and keeping his mouth shut; this is a major crucial theme in the film: you're either a "D n d (deaf and dumb) or a "canary" (a squealer).The film is basically a constant strain between silence and speaking out the truth, but at no moment, despite the dramatic climaxes and attempts to draw in the viewer, is that theme explored in an interesting or particular light; we're just given these most obvious, common narrative and theme which are fine but by no stretch of the imagination anything unique or above 'good' in quality.So as explained earlier in this text, sometimes you just need to put a couple of things together: good acting, an obvious but engaging theme, with a mafia-type environment. The film is well constructed enough, but not anymore than an endless myriad of others.6.5/10.

Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) gloats about his iron-fisted control of the waterfront. The police and the Waterfront Crime Commission know that Friendly is behind a number of murders, but witnesses play "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"), accepting their subservient position rather than risking the danger and shame of informing.Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "The Gent" (Rod Steiger) is Friendly's right-hand man. Some years earlier, Terry had been a promising boxer, until Friendly had Charley instruct him to deliberately lose a fight that he could have won, so that Friendly could win money betting against him. Terry is used to coax Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), a popular dockworker, into an ambush, preventing Joey from testifying against Friendly before the Crime Commission. Terry assumed that Friendly's enforcers were only going to "lean" on Joey to pressure him into silence, and is surprised when Joey is killed.

As difficult as it is to resist the temptation, I promised myself that I would write this review without using the famous "contendah" quote from the back of Nehemiah Persoff's cab--the one with the curious Venetian blinds in the back window. Let's see if I can actually follow through.When director Elia Kazan approached producer Darryl Zanuck with the idea for this movie, Zanuck replied, "Who's going to care about a bunch of sweaty longshoremen?". Having grown up during the 1950's and 60's in the Newark, New Jersey area, if someone were to suggest seeing a movie about an ex-prize fighter who stood up to union mobsters on the nearby, gritty waterfront of Hudson County, I would have probably politely declined the offer. Why would I need to pay for a ticket to watch a movie about an often disagreeable, prevailing culture that stifled my spirit from every direction since infancy? Both Zanuck and I could not have been more mistaken. Before you jump to any wrong conclusions, as I did initially, first check out the remarkable cast, an outstanding script by Bud Schulberg, excellent direction by Kazan, brilliant black and white camera work by Boris Kaufman on location in a brutal, bone chilling Hoboken of the 1950's, and an unusually nerve-racking score by Leonard Bernstein. Terry Malloy, the lead character played with both depth and strength by Marlon Brando in a performance that earned him a well deserved Oscar, is not just an ex-prize fighter. He is a complex human being who is tortured by a conflict between loyalty to the brother he loves and the highly influential organization that dominates every aspect of his local community, on one side, and the noble, instinctive urge to resist injustice and the tyrannical abuse of power on the other. As viewers, we become totally absorbed by his inner battle, thanks to the terrific script by Schulberg and the superb acting by Brando, as well as the entire cast.Terry develops a romantic relationship with Edie Doyle, played with a unique, quiet intensity by Eva Marie Sainte in a film debut that also earned her a justified Oscar. Edie is a very strong-willed, principled young woman who has been liberated from her rough and tumble surroundings by a "proper" college education in Westchester County, New York. She returns home during a school break only to find herself back in the inescapable grip of this cruel, urban prison. Regardless of how much her struggling, embittered longshoreman "Pop" (John Hamilton) sacrificed for her freedom, there would be no release from the jungle for Edie, at least not just yet, much to Pop's disappointment.Although Charley Malloy, played convincingly by Rod Steiger, repeatedly defends brother Terry against the suspicions of mob boss Johnny Friendly (is there a more ironic name in cinematic history?), portrayed very forcefully by Lee J. Cobb, Charley is possibly even more tormented by inner conflict than Terry is. Charley is the one who is actually "over his head" from his involvement with the waterfront mob, sucked into a life-draining trap from which there is no escape. Ms. Saint and Mr. Steiger, as fellow Newark natives, may have reached back to their own, personal backgrounds in order to shape their very credible characters. Karl Malden also stands out as the crusading, social activist priest, Father Barry, who, along with Edie, inspires Terry to rebel against overwhelming odds in order to do the right thing and to stand up for his deeply held convictions in the face of a formidable and extremely vicious adversary.This film powerfully depicts the classic battle between good and evil while illustrating and then gradually resolving an intense inner conflict that dwells deep within Terry Malloy, who must fight very hard to achieve his sense of human dignity against a brutal and seemingly insurmountable foe.See this one. It's a masterpiece.