On the Waterfront (1954)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Despite a compelling script and a knockout performance from Marlon Brando I wish the film were more inspirational because the message is important. Maybe time has faded its impact. The over-dramatic Bernstein score takes away more than it gives. The irony of this film's being made because its director didn't do what Terry Malloy did- stand up to thugs in authority - leaves me with reservations.

A triumph of movies in its realistic depiction of a man alone bucking the system, "On The Waterfront" scores in another department for me. It's a prime example of a film overcoming what the late Roger Ebert liked to call "the idiot plot."As Mr. E. put it, the idiot plot is where a movie depends on its characters acting like complete dolts in order for it to function. Here, an idiot summons a pal to a roof knowing his bully buddies who want to silence the pal wait there, not figuring that they might, you know, push him off said roof and silence him for keeps.A priest kicks off a tense meeting by asking who killed the guy, thinking somehow someone will just blurt it out and not figuring a public forum might intimidate them into further silence.A union boss figures the best way to keep idiot #1 quiet is to kill his brother and hang him on a hook for him to see the night before said idiot is scheduled to give testimony. Oh, and when the guy tells what he knows anyway, the boss blows his top and attacks him in front of the press.Still, "On The Waterfront" triumphs over such qualms and delivers a solid story, aided by powerhouse performances. Marlon Brando centers everything with an assured turn as Terry Malloy, a former boxer turned goon for Longshoremen's Local 374. Sure, Terry's an idiot, but he has a lot of heart: "I figured the worst they were gonna do was lean on him a little bit. Wow. He wasn't a bad kid, that Joey."Brando's scenes with Eva Marie Saint as Joey's sister, Edie, retain a kind of raw power, of two people finding each other in a cruel world and making something good amid the carnage. Their scenes together have an intimacy and subtlety that make them stand out more. One critical moment between them, easy to miss, is when during their first extended time together, after she lets him do most of the talking, she quietly reveals she has had her eye on him for a long time, back at school when he was a troublemaker and she was just a mousy kid in braces and braids.Director Elia Kazan was at the midpoint of his distinguished career, and gets a lot of mileage off of scriptwriter Budd Schulberg's tough-talking script. The scenes around the pier hut where the union boys run their scams are crisp and flavorful, dominated by Lee J. Cobb's nasty Johnny Friendly. "Everything that moves in and out, we take our cut," he boasts.Here and elsewhere, there is an "on-the-nose" quality to the dialogue, and to the way the film is constructed. It's manipulative the way we see Terry shot in the mesh of his pigeon coop like he's in a web, or how a crossbeam gives an aspect of a crucifix whenever Edie appears. Yet it works. "On The Waterfront" is a kind of passion play for organized labor, arguing successfully that tolerating corruption makes for a sin of omission.The famous "coulda been a contender" scene with Brando and Rod Steiger as his brother Charlie remains parody-proof, and the socko ending with Terry's big confrontation at the dock remains one of the great moments of cinema. They are rare big scenes that fully earn their acclaim.I don't love "On The Waterfront." I find it too pushed in places, and not very convincing. But it still holds up well as a testament to what movies can do, and how they can make you feel.

The movie is rich with awards and recognition. The movie was nominated for 12 Oscars and won 8. Exceptional and outstanding in all the ways, the actor's performance, direction, cinematography, music etc. The first movie of Eva Marie Saint. She won Oscar for the best supporting actress. Her chemistry with Marlon Brando was amazing. The dock is ruled by a corrupt man called Johnny Friendly. The protagonist, Terry Malloy works for Johnny. Johny kills a man who stands against him. Terry is the only person who knew what happened. To add to the situation Terry falls in love with the sister of the victim.A definitely must watch movie. Do not miss this.#KiduMovie

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.