MJB784
Marlon Brando plays an ex-boxer returning to his hometown for labor work and immediately is the last to see his longtime friend before getting pushed off a building. Soon, he is responsible for the crime and is further in danger when another union employee is accidentally killed by mishandling of construction work and the only person who trusts him is the sister of the first victim (Eva Marie Saint) even though she's sometimes terrified by him due to his violent temper. Such a temper includes breaking the door down just to come into her room. It does drag sometimes with the relationship between the two leads, but the tone for the crime aspect is gripping throughout.
meathookcinema
A young ex-boxer and a priest team up with the sister of a victim of the local mob to find out who killed her brother and try to stop the mob from unfairly controlling all of the work and wages that should be going to the dockers in the area.This is one of those films that everyone says is a classic but I hadn't got round to seeing. All I can say is- the people who say this is a classic are undervaluing the film greatly. I knew as I was watching this that one of my favourite films that I hadn't even seen for the first time from start to finish yet was unfurling before my very eyes.Karl Malden, Eve Marie Saint and Lee J Cobb are all remarkable.But then theres Marlon Brando. One still of him from this movie, any still of him from this movie is worth a million Monets. The fact that he went into acting and the movies specifically is a wonder. To see his face, his expressions, everything about him in this film projected onto a huge cinema screen reminded me why I love the movies. Flawless.A masterpiece.
Takethispunch
Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) gloats about his iron-fisted control of the waterfront. The police and the Waterfront Crime Commission know that Friendly is behind a number of murders, but witnesses play "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"), accepting their subservient position rather than risking the danger and shame of informing.Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "The Gent" (Rod Steiger) is Friendly's right-hand man. Some years earlier, Terry had been a promising boxer, until Friendly had Charley instruct him to deliberately lose a fight that he could have won, so that Friendly could win money betting against him. Terry is used to coax Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), a popular dockworker, into an ambush, preventing Joey from testifying against Friendly before the Crime Commission. Terry assumed that Friendly's enforcers were only going to "lean" on Joey to pressure him into silence, and is surprised when Joey is killed.
frankwiener
As difficult as it is to resist the temptation, I promised myself that I would write this review without using the famous "contendah" quote from the back of Nehemiah Persoff's cab--the one with the curious Venetian blinds in the back window. Let's see if I can actually follow through.When director Elia Kazan approached producer Darryl Zanuck with the idea for this movie, Zanuck replied, "Who's going to care about a bunch of sweaty longshoremen?". Having grown up during the 1950's and 60's in the Newark, New Jersey area, if someone were to suggest seeing a movie about an ex-prize fighter who stood up to union mobsters on the nearby, gritty waterfront of Hudson County, I would have probably politely declined the offer. Why would I need to pay for a ticket to watch a movie about an often disagreeable, prevailing culture that stifled my spirit from every direction since infancy? Both Zanuck and I could not have been more mistaken. Before you jump to any wrong conclusions, as I did initially, first check out the remarkable cast, an outstanding script by Bud Schulberg, excellent direction by Kazan, brilliant black and white camera work by Boris Kaufman on location in a brutal, bone chilling Hoboken of the 1950's, and an unusually nerve-racking score by Leonard Bernstein. Terry Malloy, the lead character played with both depth and strength by Marlon Brando in a performance that earned him a well deserved Oscar, is not just an ex-prize fighter. He is a complex human being who is tortured by a conflict between loyalty to the brother he loves and the highly influential organization that dominates every aspect of his local community, on one side, and the noble, instinctive urge to resist injustice and the tyrannical abuse of power on the other. As viewers, we become totally absorbed by his inner battle, thanks to the terrific script by Schulberg and the superb acting by Brando, as well as the entire cast.Terry develops a romantic relationship with Edie Doyle, played with a unique, quiet intensity by Eva Marie Sainte in a film debut that also earned her a justified Oscar. Edie is a very strong-willed, principled young woman who has been liberated from her rough and tumble surroundings by a "proper" college education in Westchester County, New York. She returns home during a school break only to find herself back in the inescapable grip of this cruel, urban prison. Regardless of how much her struggling, embittered longshoreman "Pop" (John Hamilton) sacrificed for her freedom, there would be no release from the jungle for Edie, at least not just yet, much to Pop's disappointment.Although Charley Malloy, played convincingly by Rod Steiger, repeatedly defends brother Terry against the suspicions of mob boss Johnny Friendly (is there a more ironic name in cinematic history?), portrayed very forcefully by Lee J. Cobb, Charley is possibly even more tormented by inner conflict than Terry is. Charley is the one who is actually "over his head" from his involvement with the waterfront mob, sucked into a life-draining trap from which there is no escape. Ms. Saint and Mr. Steiger, as fellow Newark natives, may have reached back to their own, personal backgrounds in order to shape their very credible characters. Karl Malden also stands out as the crusading, social activist priest, Father Barry, who, along with Edie, inspires Terry to rebel against overwhelming odds in order to do the right thing and to stand up for his deeply held convictions in the face of a formidable and extremely vicious adversary.This film powerfully depicts the classic battle between good and evil while illustrating and then gradually resolving an intense inner conflict that dwells deep within Terry Malloy, who must fight very hard to achieve his sense of human dignity against a brutal and seemingly insurmountable foe.See this one. It's a masterpiece.
