Review: On the Waterfront

Marlon Brando is former promising boxer Terry Malloy, now working on the docks without much in the way of ambition or direction (Or as he memorably puts it, he’s ‘a bum’). His older brother Charley (Rod Steiger) is the legal counsel for local mafia-backed union head Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), and the younger Terry looks up to his older and supposedly wiser brother. Friendly gets Terry to do the odd dirty job, and early on we see him setting up another guy to be roughed up by Johnny’s thugs for being uncooperative (i.e. a ‘stool pigeon’). They kill him, something Terry was unaware would be the case. He subsequently takes care of the deceased’s beloved pigeons atop the apartment building. However, it’s not until he meets and slowly ingratiates himself into the life of the dead man’s young sister (Eva Marie Saint, in her film debut), that Terry starts to think and question what’s going on. Will he take a stand against the bullying Johnny? Tough-talking preacher Father Barry (Karl Malden) has his doubts, but nonetheless tries to get through to Terry too. Fred Gwynne plays one of Johnny’s thugs, Martin Balsam and Leif Erickson are a couple of nosy waterfront crime commission guys who are desperate to find someone willing to take a stand, Nehemiah Persoff has a cameo as a driver, and that’s a young…ish Pat Hingle working at a bar.

 

Although I’m personally more partial to Martin Ritt’s quite similar and criminally underrated “Edge of the City”, this gritty 1954 waterfront drama from director Elia Kazan (“Panic in the Streets”, which was good, “The Arrangement” and “The Last Tycoon”, which were not) has a lot of things going for it, too. It contains one of Marlon Brando’s better performances, but to be honest, he gets acted off the screen by everyone else, even Eva Marie Saint. Looking rather plain, Oscar-winning Saint fits in quite well with the working class surrounds (Princess Grace was originally considered for the part!), and seems a lot more natural than Brando, who is always clearly giving a ‘performance’ in an otherwise gritty, realistic film (The best ‘Method’ actors for me are Monty Clift- one of cinema’s best-ever actors, Robert De Niro and Paul Newman, with the latter two being especially good at not showing their Actor’s Studio trickery in most of their performances, unlike Brando). Yes his acting in the ‘coulda been a contender’ scene is certainly memorable and commendable on a certain level of sheer performance, but I think Rod Steiger’s subtler turn (yes, Rod Steiger and subtle in the same sentence!) gets unfairly forgotten in the scene while everyone raves over Brando’s actory ‘method’ performance. Brando is flashier (and unquestionably gives one of the most influential performances in cinematic history), but Steiger more than holds up his end in the scene (a great scene, without question) and throughout the rest of his role. It’s not a big role, but you won’t be able to take your eyes off Steiger, even when Brando is around.

 

I think Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb both should’ve won Oscars for their work here, so it’s a shame they pretty much cancelled each other out I guess (Along with Steiger, who was also nominated. Edmond O’Brien won for “The Barefoot Contessa”). I’m not sure a real priest would compare the situation in the film to Christ’s crucifixion (Sounds more like a filmmaker trying to justify something in his own life…just a guess), but Malden truly is a tower of strength and decency here and best of all, he feels like the kind of priest who would be in this situation. There’s something a little grittier, tougher about Malden as an actor that lends itself to the part rather well. His big speechifyin’ moment courtesy of Oscar-winning screenwriter Budd Schulberg (who wrote the story for the excellent “The Harder They Fall”) might seem a tad stagey today (one of a few such moments I might add, which is probably why I prefer the more realistic “Edge of the City”), but it is undeniably stirring, powerful stuff, easily one of the film’s signature moments, nonetheless. It certainly has you sitting up and taking notice. Cobb, as the bullying waterfront boss with the ironic name of Johnny Friendly…is incredible and as usual for Cobb, full of force and bluster (and not empty bluster, mind you!). Like Malden, he’s one of the all-time great character actors and he owns the screen with his every moment on screen. The guy means business and anyone who dares stand up to him better know what the hell they’re doing. The film also has brief appearances by other familiar faces like the inimitable Fred Gwynne, Pat Hingle and Martin Balsam, all in their film debuts. Also worth pointing out is the outstanding Oscar-winning B&W cinematography by Boris Kaufman (“12 Angry Men”, “The Pawnbroker”). It’s as gritty-looking and realistic as you’d expect from a Kazan film, having been filmed on real NY docks, as was Kazan’s wont. The biggest debit is the infuriatingly loud music score by Leonard Bernstein (“On the Town”), which earned an Oscar nomination despite nearly ruining the ‘coulda been a contender’ scene. It’s unnecessary in a film that is already tense and shocking enough on its own. It’s really awful, and at one point even offers up a lame TV cop show musical sting that is way out of place in such a gritty film.  Overkill. I also thought the pigeons were pretty rank symbolism. I mean geez, Mr. Kazan, we already get it, OK?

 

Not a masterpiece, and I prefer the similar “Edge of the City”, but this is undoubtedly a tough, gritty, and surprisingly violent drama with several fine supporting performances, and a solid, if affected one from Oscar-winning Brando. Some people won’t be able to forgive Kazan for being a friendly witness at the anti-commie hearings and will dismiss the film outright for that reason, even today. That’s a shame because there’s a lot to like here, no matter Kazan’s possibly questionable behaviour during that dark time in America (Once again, don’t get me started on the dopey symbolism of the pigeons, however. So stupid). Helluva powerful finale and ending too, though some believe it is too upbeat. Such a shame about that fucking awful music.

 

Rating: B