Review of On the Waterfront (1954) by Ryan Gibbons — 16 Aug 2010
I know that I am in the minority here but I did not really like this film. But unlike most people, I will say this, I did not understand whatever hidden message was in it. I did not hate the film but I thought it was a whole lot of nothing.
The music, although it was beautiful, Tried to make some of the scenes more dramatic then they were, I like Leonard Bernstein and the music is fine, but I don't think the score fit. Marlon Brando was pretty good, but he was just groaning out one-liners.
Lee.j Cobb played the same exact character in every movie of his career. Kind Of like Leo Dicaprio, he's an actor who seems to burst out into random anger at scenes that don't necessarily require anger.
Through the entire film, I was not sure what they wanted to do. Was it a gangster movie? a drama? I really don't care about classifying movies but I think classifying this one might have helped a little because I had no Idea what the hell it was about.
It moves slowly for a short film and it jumps around more than any movie that I have ever seen, or at least that I can remember right now. On The Waterfront was pretty good but it certainly did not live up to the reputation that it got over the years.
It's got some good moments but those moments are usually followed by scenes that pull way too hard for drama.
This review of On the Waterfront (1954) was written by Ryan Gibbons on 16 Aug 2010.
On the Waterfront has generally received very positive reviews.
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