On The Waterfront
   
“I coulda’ had class. I coulda’ been a contender. I coulda’ been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” Marlon Brando’s famous, career-making speech in On the Waterfront is undeniably one of the most memorable pieces of dialogue ever committed to celluloid and the way that Elia Kazan (Director) gives Brando, As he did with A Streetcar Named Desire, the complete freedom to get lost in his character helped guarantee this film a place in history for all time. Brando's performance is genuinely dazzling and remains one of the most significant pieces of method acting ever seen (a new style of acting that was based more on feeling and instinct than on intellect)
 
Terry Malloy (Brando) plays a dim-witted very ex-boxer, who is used for menial errands by corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) along the steamy cold waterfront piers of Hoboken, New Jersey.
Things get problematical for Malloy when he falls for Edie (Eva Marie Saint), whose
Brother has just been killed by union gangsters and he feels to blame for his death after helping the gangsters set him up. Edie introduces him to Father Barry (Karl Malden), who tries to persuade him to supply information to the authorities that will bring down union.
When Malloy's brother Charley (Rod Steiger) becomes another fatal victim, the consequent confrontation between Malloy and Friendly down at the docks ensures that this film is a perfect example of what happens in Hollywood when every piece fits together, resulting in an exceptional motion picture.
 
The depth of acting, script, direction, use of locations, etc., creates a Tour de force that depicts the gritty world of corrupt inner-city unionism. On the Waterfront deservedly won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Saint), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. Leonard Bernstein missed out on an Oscar for his music score which is worth mentioning due to this being the only non-musical film that he arranged the score for. The Oscar instead went to Dimitri Tiomkin for his work on The High and the Mighty.
 
On the Waterfront is, it must be said, saturated in a right-wing political worldview. Mobs govern unions and are consequently corrupt organisations that exploit workers and make it harder for businesses to prosper. Two years earlier, Kazan had sold out his integrity and his colleagues to the House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC), naming those who would go on to become the Hollywood blacklisted 10. Kazan, through the figurative meaning of the film, brands his former writers as criminals and murders, and himself as the naive innocent (Malloy).
 
Political agenda apart, this is inspired filmmaking. An unforgettable battle between good and evil that shows one man standing tall against overwhelming odds due to the conviction of his values and he conclusion is one of the most conquering in filmmaking history.
 
 
Paul Elliott