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Rated: NR
Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, et al.
Director: Elia Kazan Review
Marlon Brando's famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech is such a
warhorse by now that a lot of people probably feel they've seen this
picture already, even if they haven't. And many of those who have seen it
may have forgotten how flat-out thrilling it is. For all its great
dramatic and cinematic qualities, and its fiery social criticism, Elia
Kazan's On the Waterfront is also one of the most gripping melodramas of
political corruption and individual heroism ever made in the United
States, a five-star gut-grabber. Shot on location around the docks of
Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, it tells the fact-based story of a
longshoreman (Brando's Terry Malloy) who is blackballed and savagely
beaten for informing against the mobsters who have taken over his union
and sold it out to the bosses. (Karl Malden has a more conventional
stalwart-hero role, as an idealistic priest who nurtures Terry's pangs of
conscience.) Lee J. Cobb, who created the role of Willy Loman in Death of
Salesman under Kazan's direction on Broadway, makes a formidable foe as a
greedy union leader. --David Chute ------------
Marlon Brando stars as Terry Malloy, a former boxer who now works on the
docks of the waterfront. He inadvertently plays a part in a murder planned
by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobbs), the corrupted manager of the Waterfront
docks. The Waterfront Crime Commission at the same time is holding
hearings on crime and corruption on the waterfront. Terry happens to meet
the sister of the murdered man (Eva Mary Saint), who encourages Terry to
speak out. Terry also is encouraged to tell the truth and expose the
corruption on the docks by Father Barry (Karl Malden). But Johnny Friendly
will do anything to stop Terry from speaking out.
The winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture,
Best Director (Elia Kazan), Best Actor (Brando) and Best Screenplay, On
The Waterfront is a film that you cannot afford to miss.
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