ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Elia Kazan Writer: Budd Schulberg (based on his story) Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, John Hamilton, James Westerfield, Leif Erickson, Fred Gwynne
"I coulda been a contender," says Marlon Brando in the most famous line in the most famous sequence of this film, a classic which won a ton of Oscars back in '54, including a well-deserved one for Brando himself, who was in the prime of his career. Sadly, this seems to be all that "On the Waterfront" is remembered for. Many great Hollywood films are remembered for mere sequences, lines, or great performances when there are hundreds of thousands of things to love it for. "On the Waterfront" is not just "the film where Brando says "I coulda been a contender," but is instead a multi-layered intense drama about the importance of unionizing, and even deeper, of standing up for yourself...and even deeper, of doing what is right despite the consequences...and even yet deeper, of being anti-McCarthyistic. Allow me to explain that last one.
But first, the story of "On the Waterfront" deals with an uneducated dock worker named Terry Malloy (Brando, when he was young and thin), who's motto for life is basically "Do it to him before he does it to you." Everyday, he and hundreds of dock workers line up on the waterfront to get jobs, but the mafia who controls the union always overadvertises, and only a select group of men can get jobs for the day, leaving many with a cold "Come back tomorrow." But Terry always gets picked, not only because his brother, Charley (a young Rod Steiger), is a major player in the head of the union, run by the ruthless Johnny Friendly (a scene-stealing Lee J. Cobb), but also because in one of the early scenes he helped them catch a man who was going to rat on them to the courts the next day...but unbenknownst to Terry, they were going to kill him.
Soon, not only does he run into the man's daughter, Edie (Eva Marie Saint, later playing the mischeavious girl in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest"), who begins falling for him, but also Father Barry (Karl Malden), who is out to get the workers to unite and rebel against the harsh treatment by Johnny Friendly and his goons. However, no one will join up for fear of murder or a lack of a job afterwards, but after one of Terry's friends, "Kayo" Dugan (Pat Henning) joins up with the Father and is subsequently murdered in an "accident," Terry begins to doubt what he's doing, and begins to think about his past and what he should do.
Turns out that Terry, who everyone calls a "bum," was once a boxer, and the night he made it all the way to Madison Square Garden for the fight of his life, where he knew that he'd be the big winner, his brother, who was managing his career at the time, forced him to go down for a bit of money, leaving Terry a broken boxer, and crippling his self esteem. Terry has been afraid to take any action for his life up till now, but the film explores it intelligently, as ratting on his bosses may mean harm for not only him, but people around him.
The ending of the film, taking place after Terry has gone to court and told everything he knows about Johnny Friendly and his operation, is heroic and crowd-pleasing, but also smart and downright wonderful. It might seem like a typical Hollywood ending, but has backed itself up smartly, and truly earns any cheers from the audience. The film on the surface seems to be about the importance of unionizing for the downtrodden workers (somewhat Communistic, which explains why this was controversial even before it was released), and also about the importance of doing the right thing no matter what the horrific consequences. Terry's dilemna is a real-life deilemna, and the film explores it as a parable about ordinary life, not just about dealing with unions.
But when one knows the history about this film, they know that the director Elia Kazan (who also directed the original brilliant "A Streetcar Named Desire," which also starred Brando) was under questioning in the McCarthy trials, where he was forced to name names about who was a Communist and who wasn't. While this doesn't directly parallel the film (the film seems to be pro-Communism, sorta, and views the men he has to rat on as really being bad), it seems to be Kazan's way of trying to get forgiveness for what he did from his peers. Sure, it's personal propaganda, but it works anyway.
Seeing as this is a powerful drama, it also features lots of stand-out acting from various actors. Lee J. Cobb as the boss Johnny Friendly is one hell of a scene stealer, while Rod Steiger is wonderful as a brother who knows he has harmed his sibling almost beyond recognition or forgiveness, and Pat Henning is brilliant in his short role as a doubting dock worker who choses the wrong day to go to work. In bigger roles, Karl Malden is typically awesome as the rousing priest, and Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar for her performance, is downright wonderful as the loving but vengeful sister, out to stop the men who killed her brother.
But need I even say the best performance is from Brando? Brando's an actor who at his best if the best actor who ever lived, and here, he's in one of his very best roles, a performance which almost overcomes his acting as Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar." Brando's a method actor, so he's really Terry Malloy, and he's 100% believable in the role. Every quirk and mannerism seems like the character's, and he presents him as a man who's simple, but filled with a past which haunts him all the time. Watching Brando is one of the greatest experiences in all of film history, and his Terry Malloy is one of the best performances by an actor ever captured on celluloid.
What's left after "On The Waterfront" is not just the climactic "I coulda been a contender" scene, but the entire message and feel of the film. Who can forget Terry's cynical motto in the beginning? Or the sight of Brando caring for pigeons on the roof of his building? Or the pain in Rod Steiger's eyes when he pulls a gun on his brother? Or the finale, which is filled with so many emotions that we're not sure how to react to them right away? "On the Waterfront" is one of the best films I've ever seen, not because it's a complex execution in film surrealism like a Bergman film (which it isn't), but because it's one of those films that can inspire and touch an audience with a unviersal message, move people with an emotional and powerful dramatic storyline, and even get people to forgive anyone who is forced to rat on his friends.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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