"Isn't it simple as one, two, three? One: The working conditions are bad. Two: They're bad because the mob does the hiring. And three: The only way we can break the mob is to stop letting them get away with murder."
The late Marlon Brando is widely regarded as the greatest actor of all time, but until very recently, The Godfather was the only movie of his that I had watched. That being said, I wanted my new classic movie segment to start out with a bang, so what better choice than the greatest actor of all time's most critically acclaimed movie was there? I saw At The Waterfront yesterday, and from the very beginning of the movie, I knew that I was in for treat. I knew the movie was gonna be a lot different from the movies I usually watch, seeing as it's almost 60 years old and all, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how powerful it actually is. As stated in my latest update post, I personally have a hard time getting out of my comfort zone and give older movies a shot, even though I'm well aware that these movies often are some of the more incredible and memorable ones. If you're one of these people as well, please, for the love of God, go watch On the Waterfront or any other old classic for that matter. Give it a chance, and I promise you that your view will change, and a whole new world of fantastic movies will open up for you.
On the Waterfront came out in 1954 and immediately received wide critical acclaim, which also showed at that year's academy awards. Marlon Brando won his first oscar for his portrayal of Terry Malloy, a tough, mistreated but goodhearted longshoreman, and the movie was also rewarded with awards such as best picture, best screenplay and best director. Brando's character is a young dock worker who works at the waterfront in New Your City, a business that was completely dominated by the mob at that time, and like everyone else, he does whatever his bosses tell him to. Even though the working conditions were horrible and the pay was extremely low, the workers had no other choice than to do what they were told, if they didn't want to end up dead in a back alley. An eyeopening experience, a determined catholic priest and a lovely young woman eventually make Terry question whether or not he's capable of withstanding the mistreatment, the dominance and the corruption of the mob any longer, and as the movie gets going, our main character realises that the only way to make things better for him and his colleagues is to do something about the problem himself.
This movie definitely is an "oscar worthy"-kind of movie, in the sense that it has a great message about the society of the 1950's and the people who lived in it to tell. Even though that kind of movie often tend to bore the regular movie goer, On the Waterfront did an good job of staying interesting and captivating throughout it's entire run time, which in my opinion largely is because of the way it's put together. Even though the commonly used Hollywood-model of "character introduction first, escalation of the main issue second, grand finale last" that the movie follows is extremely cliché'd, there's something very pleasing about the way everything that happens makes sense. All the scenes somehow seem to connect and mean something more to each other than they usually do, and all the little hints, details and character specific trademarks are followed up upon and used later in the movie to really emphasise something else. As a result, everything that happens in this movie seems important and well thought out, as if nothing happened by chance. It's a solid, well created movie that probably deserved to win the oscar for best picture, but more importantly, for best editing as well.
Another very important part of this movie is the message it tells and the themes that it uses to do so. Terry is faced with several moral dilemmas throughout the movie, and the way he struggles to determine whether or not he should act on his own behalf or do what he knows in his heart is the right thing to do, is a joy to watch most of the time. Father Berry (played by Karl Malden) is crucial to this element of right vs. wrong, and he's the only person who tries to stand up to the mob to begin with. He has several scenes in which he tries to convince the workers On the Waterfront that the only way they can improve their situation is to stand up against the mob and witness against them in court, even though he knows it'll endanger their lives. This leads into another one the issues that the movie raises about society, which is the question of whether it's okay to be a "rat", someone who passes information on to the police. These moral dilemmas between choosing to do what is best for one self or what is best for the people around you is the core theme of On the Waterfront. I personally think that it was an alright plot, but then again, it wasn't nearly as interesting as some of the other elements of the movie. It felt a little too educational and a bit too shoehorned into the movie as well.
One of the things about this movie that surprised me the most, is how quickly I bought the eventual romance between Terry Malloy (Brando) and Edie Doyle (played by Eva Marie Saint). It didn't take nearly as long before I got on board with their relationship and started caring about what was going to happen to them as it usually does, and I'm honestly not sure why. Both actors won academy awards for their performances in this movie, but honestly, I've seen romances before that were just as well acted as this one, but were as interesting to me as George Clooney's batnipples in Batman and Robin are. (weird, my computer doesn't recognise the word "batnipple".) What I do know is that the relationship between these two characters was the thing I liked the most about the whole movie, because it was incredibly important to me that they were gonna be alright and and figure things out. Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront, which I'd heard basically in itself is what makes this movie a classic, was, as predicted, completely off the chain. Brando's way of becoming the character which he portrays is incomparable to anything I've seen in a long time, and his addition to this movie undoubtedly is one of it's biggest draws.
Watching On the Waterfront was a very pleasant and eye opening experience for me, because it made me realise that older movies can be just as enjoyable as newer ones. My favourite parts were Marlon Brando's acting and his and Eva Marie Saint's relationship, and the way the movie was put together and told through great editing, phasing and cinematography is truly admirable. My only real problem with the movie is that I felt as though the main plot was more interesting than entertaining, which in turn meant that I had to stay completely focused whilst watching and movie, in fear of loosing interest in what it was trying to say. The script definitely is oscar worthy for the reasons I talked about earlier, it just wasn't as entertaining and captivating to me as other parts of the movie were. For this reason, On the Waterfront, the all time classic, "only" gets my seal of approval, which of cause still is a good rating. (4/6)
On the Waterfront IMDb page here
On the Waterfront trailer link here
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