On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is an
American 1954 film about mob violence and corruption among
longshoremen, and it has become a standard of its kind. The film was directed by
Elia Kazan and stars
Marlon Brando,
Eva Marie Saint,
Karl Malden and
Lee J. Cobb. The film deals with social issues which paralleled the emerging organization of
labor. It was based on a series of articles in the
New York Sun by
Malcolm Johnson.
In
On the Waterfront,
protagonist (Terry Malloy's) fight against corruption was modeled after whistle-blowing longshoreman
Anthony DiVincenzo, who testified before a real-life
Waterfront Commission on the facts of life on the Hoboken docks and had suffered a degree of ostracization for his deed. DiVincenzo sued & settled, many years after, with
Columbia Pictures over the appropriation of what he considered his story. DiVincenzo recounted his story to Schulberg during a month-long session of waterfront barroom meetingseven though Shulberg attended De Vincenzo's waterfront commission testimony every day during the hearing.
Johnny Friendly was based on mobster
Albert Anastasia, chief executioner of
Murder, Inc.. The story is both based and filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Parallels with Kazan's life
It is seen by many as a jab by Kazan at his former close friend,
Arthur Miller, who along with
Lillian Hellman was bitterly and openly resentful of Kazan's "betrayal" of film artists to the
HUAC as communists. Specifically, it may be a direct response to Miller's
The Crucible, about a heroic New England
Puritan who chooses to die rather than make false accusations of
witchcraft.
On the Waterfront, being about a heroic mob informer, is widely considered to be Kazan's answer to his critics.
The film later was deemed "culturally significant" by the
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry. Terry Malloy's line in the film, "You don't understand. I could've had class. I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am", was voted in a
2005 poll by the
American Film Institute as the third most memorable line in cinema history [
1].
The film, and leading lady Eve Marie Saint, are included in the lyrics of the song
Rattlesnakes by
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.
It was the winner of eight Oscars:
*
Best Actor -
Marlon Brando*
Best Picture -
Sam Spiegel, producer
*
Best Supporting Actress -
Eva Marie Saint*
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White -
Richard Day*
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -
Boris Kaufman*
Directing -
Elia Kazan*
Film Editing -
Gene Milford*
Writing, Story and Screenplay -
Budd SchulbergNominations
The film also received an additional four Oscar nominations:
*
Best Supporting Actor -
Lee J. Cobb*
Best Supporting Actor -
Karl Malden*
Best Supporting Actor -
Rod Steiger*
Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -
Leonard Bernstein*
McCarthyism and the Movies
