On the
WaterfrontAPPROACHES TO FILM Main Page / Course Syllabus / Discussion Forum / Film Pages / Exams & Grades
On the
WaterfrontA tour de force both for director Elia Kazan and actor Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront is a gritty, no-holds-barred drama about the corruption-glutted New York docks. It is also the story of the dock workers' excruciating struggle to make a living and of the awesome power of the unions that control them.
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The true facts on which On the Waterfront is based
Gangster's methods. Lee J. Cobb is the gangster union boss Johnny
Friendly, and Rod Steiger his crooked lawyer, Charley Malloy. Steiger's brother, Terry
(Brando), an ex-prizefighter, hangs around the docks and runs errands for Cobb, 
who gives handouts to those who do his bidding. Already a has-been as a young
man, Brando keeps pigeons on a rooftop and dreams about his days as an up-and-coming
fighter.
Cobb tells Brando to ask a truculent union worker who is holed up in his apartment to meet him on the roof of his tenement building. The worker goes to the roof, and two of Cobb's goons push him off to his death as Brando watches in shock. Later, Brando tells some of Cobb's other thugs, "I thought they were only gonna lean on him a little," to which Truck (onetime heavyweight boxer "Two-ton" Tony Galento) replies, "The canary could sing but he couldn't fly!"
Dock workers' deaths. Brando later meets pretty Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the murdered man's sister, and begins to feel responsible for the death. She introduces him to Father Barry (Karl Malden), who tells Brando that the dead man was killed because he was going to expose racket boss Cobb and his brutal henchmen. The gritty priest then exhorts Brando to provide the crime commission with information that will smash the dock racketeers.
Another dock worker, "Kayo" Dugan (Pat Henning), does cooperate with the crime commission, loudly bragging that he will bring Cobb down. But while Henning is working in the hold of a ship, a huge packing crate is "accidentally" dropped on the rebellious docker, killing him.
Malden shows up and gives Henning his last rites, then addresses the longshoremen, urging them to stand up and go to the authorities to tell what they know about union corruption. Galento and fellow thug Tillio (Tami Mauriello) begin to shout down the priest. When Mauriello throws a can that strikes Malden, Brando steps forth and warns the goons to stop it. The priest continues to address the workers, head bleeding, his clothes soiled by the rotten food hurled at him. Mauriello starts to hurl another object, and Brando jumps in front of him, delivering a powerhouse blow that knocks the hulk unconscious.
Cooperating with the crime commission. Later, Brando falls in love with Saint, and Malden gently leads him into cooperating with Glover (Leif Erickson) and other members of the crime commission. Seeing that Brando is straying, Cobb orders Steiger to get his brother in line or face the fatal consequences.
Brothers' talk. Steiger takes Brando for a ride in a cab driven by one of Cobb's henchmen (Nehemiah Persoff), and the two have a brotherly talk. Steiger says that Brando is to get a new job, plenty of money, and all kinds of favors, but he must keep silent and not talk to the crime commission. Brando is now thoroughly disillusioned with his older, educated brother. Steiger pulls a gun on Brando and insists that he do as he is told, but Brando shoves the gun away in disgust.
Steiger realizes what he's done and then waxes nostalgic about Brando's failed career
as a boxer, saying Brando could have been another Billly Conn in the ring and that
"the skunk we got you for a manager brought you along too fast." "It
wasn't him, Charley," Brando responds. "It was you. Remember that
night in the Garden and you came down to my dressing room and you said `Kid, this ain't
your night. We're going for the price on Wilson.' You remember that? This ain't your
night! My night! I could have taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets a title shot
outdoors in a ballpark and I get a one-way ticket to palookaville! You was my brother,
Charley, you should've looked out for me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them
dives for the short-end money."
Steiger shrugs: "We had some bets down for you—you saw some money." Brando winces: "You don't understand! I could have had class. I could've been a contender! I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am! It was you Charley."
Brother's sacrifice. Steiger decides to tell Cobb that he couldn't find Brando and then hands his brother the gun, letting him out of the cab. The driver, overhearing everything, takes Steiger to a garage where Cobb's goons are waiting.
Brando meanwhile runs to Saint and forces himself on her, but as they begin to make love, Cobb's goons call up from the street: "Your brother's down here—he wants to see you!" Brando leaves, goes down an alley, and is joined by Saint; a truck barrels down the alley after them, and they barely escape being run over. Then Brando sees Steiger, hanging from a hook in the alley, dead, filled with bullet holes. Gently, he removes the body from the hook. Asking Saint to take care of his brother's body, he goes to Cobb's saloon headquarters looking for the boss. There he holds several goons at bay with the gun Steiger gave him, but they escape when Malden shows up and talks Brando into going to the crime commission to break Cobb's murderous stranglehold on the dock workers.
Longshoremen unite. The next day Brando goes before the crime commission and testifies against Cobb and his thugs. Shrieking curses and vowing revenge, Cobb tells Brando he's a dead man. Although no longer in office, Cobb still exercises control of his union, and when his straw boss (James Westerfield) hands out jobs the next day on the docks, everyone gets one but Brando. Brando runs down a gangplank to a barge where Cobb and his goons are waiting. He is viciously beaten, but scores of workers shout that they will not go to work without him. He struggles to his feet, half-conscious, and staggers up the gangplank, making his way through the crowd toward the warehouse to be the first worker to enter and take his job. The men follow him, a clear-cut defeat for the mob and a victory for the workers.
Performances. On the Waterfront is nonstop drama, and Brando is spectacular as the ex-fighter who finds his conscience and risks his life for his newfound principles. The realistic dialogue is poetic in its simplicity, and the grimy, seedy tenements and clammy docks are strikingly captured. Kazan sets every scene with menace and suspense, evoking a pitiless, steel-gray world where tough hope is requisite for survival.
Cobb is a great villain, exercising his power with a payoff, a sneering smile, and a booming voice, and his goons are really frightening characters, many of them former real-life boxers with faces scarred by years in the ring. Saint is an island of sanity and decency, as is Malden, who gives one of the finest performances of his career. His speech in the ship's hold is a searing indictment of evil.
The film is a draining experience from beginning to end, relentless in its portrayal of inhumanity. And it is all the more grim and hard-hitting because of the startling documentary approach of cinematographer Boris Kaufman. It is also extremely violent and bloody.
Controversial film. Accused of being anti-American and denounced by union leaders, On the Waterfront was mired in controversy at the time of its release, but it has stood the test of time and has emerged as a great portrait of a nonconformist who is not an informer but rather a man who experiences a moral transformation for the good of his fellow man. Budd Schulberg's literate, uncompromising screenplay makes sure that no one can mistake Terry Malloy's intentions. After crusading against corruption in professional boxing in the novel that became The Harder They Fall, Schulberg was the logical choice to write the screenplay for On the Waterfront. (Oddly, Schulberg had earlier refused to ever write another film for studio mogul Harry Cohn, but here he agreed to contract with independent producer Sam Spiegel, whose arrangement with Columbia guaranteed no interference from Cohn.)
Basis of story. Schulberg based the screenplay on a fascinating and heroic series of articles written by Malcolm Johnson for the New York Sun. What Johnson unearthed in his investigation of waterfront crime and later published in a 24-part series—following the murder of a New York hiring boss in April 1948—shocked America. The hard-hitting series, which won Johnson a Pulitzer Prize, described in detail the killings, bribery, kickbacks, thievery, shakedowns, and extortion that were everyday occurrences along New York's waterfront.
When Kazan took over the project, he had fallen into disfavor in Hollywood, chiefly because he had cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as had Schulberg. This film, however, reaffirmed Kazan's wonderful talent.
Casting. Kazan's first choice for the role of the ex-fighter was Brando, but the actor reportedly could not make up his mind whether he wanted to play the part, so Kazan offered it to Frank Sinatra, who had just made a memorable comeback in From Here to Eternity (1953) and was one of the hottest actors on the scene. Before that deal was finalized, however, Brando decided he wanted to play Terry Malloy after all, and Sinatra later loudly complained, according to one report, that he had been misled by Kazan. Brando's decision proved to be an excellent one, and his dynamic, Oscar-winning performance is one of the most memorable in his distinguished career. (This would be the last film Brando would do with Kazan, although the director would offer him roles for Baby Doll, 1956; A Face in the Crowd, 1957; and The Arrangement, 1969.)
Censor's approval. Courageously, Columbia decided to make a film on a subject that Hollywood had always considered taboo—labor unions. Studio head Cohn was not originally in favor of doing the film, but since his New York office had made the production deal with producer Spiegel, he did not interfere. He did view the film at his private screening room in his home, however, with Kazan at his side, and only commented on one scene, wherein Brando tells priest Malden to "go to hell." Snorted Cohn to Kazan: "Boy, are you going to have trouble with the Breen Office (the then official Hollywood censor) over that "go to hell' scene. They'll never pass it." Cohn was so shocked when the Breen Office didn't object to the scene that he barraged the censor with angry questions regarding other Columbia films that had been censored for what he thought were lesser offenses.
On-location shooting. Kazan, who had taken cast and crew to Stamford, Connecticut, to film Boomerang! in 1947 and made the tense drama Panic in the Streets in New Orleans in 1950, was noted for shooting on location to achieve a thoroughly authentic look. He insisted on doing the same for On the Waterfront, with almost every scene shot in Hoboken, New Jersey, much to the dismay of Cohn, who thought it better to make the film on his back lot in California.
Although Harry Cohn had prophesied doom for On the Waterfront, a film that cost only $902,000 to make, the picture was a whopping success, grossing $9.5 million in its initial release. Moreover, it went on to win eight Academy Awards in 1954.
Awards. In addition to Brando's Best Actor Oscar, the film was honored as Best Picture, Saint was named Best Supporting Actress, Kazan won Best Director, Schulberg got Best Screenplay, Kaufman won for his cinematography, Richard Day for his art direction, and Gene Milford for his film editing. Steiger, Cobb, and Malden were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and Leonard Bernstein received a nomination for Best Score.