A Review Of The Film On The Waterfront
The movie On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan, gives a classic movie with drama and romance. The movie tells a story of an up and coming boxer, a powerful mob persuades him into losing a fight. When one of the longshoremen killed before he could testify about the control of the mob on the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister, and the street-smart priest to testify against the corrupted management of the waterfront.
Some of the most important characters in this movie were Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, Eve Marie Saint as Edie Doyle, Karl Malden as Father Barry, Lee J. Cobb as Johnny Friendly and Rod Steiger as Charley Malloy. The movie shows a terrific characterization in Terry Malloy, even though the movie has a bittersweet plot, the directing in the movie makes it a great film to watch. It is too easy to see how Elia Kazan characterizes Terry Malloy. The director does this by explaining the details of Terry in the movie. Terry has been ruled and pushed around most of his life. In the scene when Terry said to Charley “You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley. ” Charley told Terry to throw the fight he was in because Friendly bet on the other guy. This showed that Terry had no say in anything from when he was a fighter to now when he was a longshoreman. He has to take several orders from Johnny Friendly.
The watcher can see how Terry begins to build character, when at first he plays D and D (Deaf and Dumb) like everyone else, but eventually he starts to realize that he does not want to be pushed around anymore. While the story is not that rich, it is how Terry gets there. Terry does not want to be the little guy, and he was not going to get stomped on by this union. Due of the events that Terry experiences, he comes to terms with that. That is what really makes this film great. The plot in this movie was a bittersweet, but it also had a good message behind it. The movie portrays that this man Terry Malloy was once this big hot shot and on top of the world, who transformed into a miserable man working with many other men on the waterfront. When the opportunity comes to Terry to take down Friendly he does not take it at first, but by the end, Father Barry and Edie convince him.
In most of the movie it is easy to tell that Terry reminisces about the times he was at the top of the world, and wishes he could go back in time and be on top. It shows that even back then his union had a large amount of control over him and possibly ruined his life. When Joe Doyle is pushed off the roof and killed, it opens his eyes to others, and it shows that the mob was not messing around.
The movie is not really about the plot, it is about Terry’s experiences. He absorbed everything around him and everything within his environment. Elia Kazan’s directing in this movie was wonderfully done. Elia Kazan did a marvelous job of choosing black and white for this film. The movie in black and white makes people understand what it was like way back when, it helps the person who is watching get into the grit and type of awfulness in the environment. The black and white cinematography is what makes the film, the film would not work in color. The fact that the characters either having light colored clothes or dark colored clothes, tells the person watching who is good and who is bad. Terry has both and cannot choose a side. Since the movie is in black and white the watcher can see the darkness in the town, and that the town is corrupted and is going down the drain.
Elia Kazan also made a wonderful choice by having Marlon Brando act in this movie. Marlon does a tremendous job of portraying his emotions as Terry Malloy, and how it relates to Elia Kazan’s life. As Kazan interrupted by his interactions with the House Un-American Activities Committee, a federal committee that was investigating Americans' ties to Communism at the time. Under pressure from the HUAC, Kazan confessed his two-year membership in an American cell of the Communist Party when he had been part of the Group Theatre in the '30s. Marlon Brando communicates the angst and confusion of an inarticulate speaker trying to form his own identity in familiar but newly threatening surroundings. He strives to be an individual with strong principles, and his movements reveal his struggle. He chews gum expressively, shrugs, lags behind, pulls his collar up, and stuffs his hands in his pockets. All of these nervous, almost evasive, gestures and behaviors represent a stark contrast from the goons in Johnny Friendly’s gang.
This movie was very intriguing, the story tells people a lot about what it was like back in the 1950s. The movie shows that there were a lot of people who owned people, which makes this movie very highly recommended to watch. The plot of the movie may seem confusing, but it is the journey of Terry inside of the plot that makes the movie great. The great portraying of Terry’s emotions helps the person watching learn what the union did to him. The directing in the movie helps viewers to understand what Elia Kazan was going through in his life. What really makes this a great film is that it helps the person watching realize that they have rights of their own. They cannot allow themselves be pushed around by people who have a lot of money or a lot of guns. No one should let other people be forced to do what they do not want to do, and Terry shows that in this phenomenal film.
