Review of On the Waterfront (1954) by Ricardo O — 17 Nov 2009

Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront is about an ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman working on the waterfront on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. As the film begins Terry is used to coax the dockworker out to an ambush, preventing him from testifying against Johnny Friendly, the corrupt union leader, before the Crime Commission. Terry resents being used in the murder but is still willing to remain "D&D". Soon after Terry runs into Edie, the sister of the deceased dockworker, and is immediately attracted to her and begins a forbidden relationship. The rest of the film deals with Terry's conscience and his struggle against the corruption of Friendly and his thugs.

Before I start praising Brando's performance I will go on with the other things that make this film stand out. The script is fantastic and serves as an allegory for what the director and many of his peers were going through at the time when Hollywood was on the hunt for Communists. The score is really good. The cinematography and the editing are fantastic. Kazan's direction doesn't have many peers especially when it comes to this film, it is perfectly directed. The entire cast is phenomenal. This film contains 5 of the greatest performances to ever be put on screen. Eva Marie Saint is fantastic in her much deserving Oscar winning role as Edie, Lee J Cobb is great as the villain Johnny Friendly and gives what might just be his finest performance, Rod Steiger is sublime especially in the scene when him and Brando are in the backseat, Karl Malden gives his best performance as the priest, and Brando gives THE greatest performance by an actor. It is a thing of beauty to see this man act. His delivery and his emotion is like no other. He was the greatest actor to ever live and this will always be remembered as his crowning achievement.

This is an essential piece of film that no movie buff should ever skip on viewing. 10/10.