Review of On the Waterfront (1954) by Nick O — 25 Jun 2013

There's an interview with Martin Scorsese on the Criterion release of "On the Waterfront", which makes total sense. Scorsese is maybe cinema's greatest movie buff, and his characters -- from De Niro to Jack Nicholson in "The Departed" -- very clearly took a page from the burliness of Marlon Brando.

And Scorsese, in turn, was clearly inspired by the moral leanings of the films (and real life) of Elia Kazan. "On the Waterfront" isn't an epic, but it's a touching blend of brains, brawn, family and consequences, indebted to its small-time criminals in a big-time and honest way.

Try not to fall for Leonard Bernstein's tragically beautiful score. It's so good, in fact, it would have been easy for Kazan to use it as a crutch. He doesn't. But it does help in giving the rest of "Waterfront", a true raging bull of a movie, its disquieting feeling of shame worried sick.