Review of On the Waterfront (1954) by Ivan D — 02 Dec 2008
Marlon Brando is one of the best actors of all time, and here in Elia Kazan's masterpiece "On the Waterfront", he showed us why he is hailed as one. Forget Godfather, put aside streetcar, move away last tango, this is Brando's ULTIMATE performance.
I heard a lot about the "I coulda been a contenda" speech, and I thought at first that the line was vastly overrated and I thought that any actor could have done it, but when I saw Brando delivered the immortal lines, it is the end of my skepticism.
The mixed emotions in that particular scene adds power to the lines, it is hard to imagine any actor delivering the speech, even great actors like Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino does not come to my imagination delivering those dialogues.
The scenes were crafted perfectly, raw and simply powerful, and in the end, one cannot help but praise Elia Kazan's staggering masterwork. This is an important film to watch, and it just not concern film history, but it is also significant on a moral level.
This review of On the Waterfront (1954) was written by Ivan D on 02 Dec 2008.
On the Waterfront has generally received very positive reviews.
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