On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
NR | 28 July 1954 (USA)
On the Waterfront Trailers

A dim-witted yet kind-hearted boxer, Terry Malloy, who failed to succeed unintentionally lures a man to his death after being tricked by a criminal called Johnny Friendly whose men pick of every man who has the courage to speak up to their crimes. As he works on the waterfronts that Friendly owns, he is sent to a church meeting run by a good preacher about how to deal with the problem and runs into the dead man’s sister. Slowly, he falls in love with her and begins to feel guilt about his crime.

Reviews
CommentsXp

Best movie ever!

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Baseshment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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ThedevilChoose

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Nayan Gough

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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Tyson Hunsaker

I was fortunate enough to blind buy On the Waterfront due to it's buzz and wonderful reception by the Academy and movie lovers even in the 21st century. When people say On the Waterfront is one of the finest films ever made, believe the hype because this is an incredible and memorable film from start to finish. Arguably Elia Kazan's best work, the seasoned director constructs a hierarchy of crime for our protagonist to navigate and hopefully, rise above. The story provokes sympathetic characters in cruel circumstances as we behold a stellar Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger performance. Both play brothers in different positions amidst their crime underworld. On the Waterfront is a satisfying experience of a film with believable characters, authentic dialogue, perfect pacing, tension and an ending that'll make you stand up and cheer. It's a fantastic film that seems to improve upon each viewing.

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Anssi Vartiainen

One of Marlon Brando's most well-known film and the first one to give him an Academy Award - the second one being The Godfather. A story about an ex-prizefighter who has turned into a longshoreman in New Jersey. Things start to heat up as his gangster of a union boss (Lee J. Cobb) axes off one of the workers for reasons of being a police informant.It's a working crime thriller. Brando is known for his method acting and it shows in the film being ahead of its time. Often films in the 50s still showed clear signs of theatre. Small, closed sets, a bit overplayed acting and the flow of the story is pretty episodic. Whereas I could easily imagine seeing a film such as this one in the decades to come. Brando's Terry is a man of few words, but you can still clearly tell what he's feeling from scene to scene.Another showstealer is Karl Malden's Father Barry, a local preacher that takes it as his task to oppose Mr. Friendly, the union boss. It's refreshing to see a man of faith represented like this. As a man willing to mix with the people and call things as they are, without in any way taking away from his religiousness. In fact he gives one of the best talks about Christian faith I've seen on film.But to be completely honest, I didn't find the story that captivating. It's done well enough, certainly, and the characters are fantastic, but the plot itself is predictable and nothing I haven't seen in newer films. Full points for this film for novelty, but that only counts for so much.Still, for fans of crime films, it's definitely worth a watch. It's a contender.

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John Brooks

You would think the equilibrium for cinema would be more than a mere one two punch sort of combo, that for a great film to be made it'd be required that it would master a number of things, not simply make sure it contains a couple things.Here, Marlon Brando plays the sensitive big man, ex-prize fighter. The whole idea of the film is there's a mafia in town that's forcing an omerta city-wide and a few like a priest or others are standing in its way calling it out for its oppressive ways. So far, nothing revolutionary. Brando and Eva Marie Saint and the other actors all do a really good job at their roles. So far, we're at standard level.Brando is linked to some key members of the 'mafia' mob including the big boss and tries to help out Saint's character, who's lost her brother earlier in the film. So he's torn between trying to help her out from goodness of heart and purity, and keeping his mouth shut; this is a major crucial theme in the film: you're either a "D n d (deaf and dumb) or a "canary" (a squealer).The film is basically a constant strain between silence and speaking out the truth, but at no moment, despite the dramatic climaxes and attempts to draw in the viewer, is that theme explored in an interesting or particular light; we're just given these most obvious, common narrative and theme which are fine but by no stretch of the imagination anything unique or above 'good' in quality.So as explained earlier in this text, sometimes you just need to put a couple of things together: good acting, an obvious but engaging theme, with a mafia-type environment. The film is well constructed enough, but not anymore than an endless myriad of others.6.5/10.

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PimpinAinttEasy

Dear Martin Scorsese, I watched your interview on the special features section of the On The Waterfront DVD. You did make some good points about how On the Waterfront was a pioneer in the way the streets of New York was filmed and looked on screen. You also stated that Brando's performance was unique and you had not seen anything like it before except for John Garfield in Force of Evil. But I was thinking about Sterling Hayden in The Asphalt Jungle. I am not comparing Sterling to Brando. But I was thinking about how both the characters were conflicted by the corruption around them, seemingly unable to escape their terrible circumstances. Brando exuded the lonesomeness and melancholy of the failed boxer trying to save his soul by standing up to the union boss who controls the livelihood of the longshoremen. I see parallels between Brando's performance in On the Waterfront and De Niro's in The Raging Bull. I also think Lee.J.Cobb's performance is seriously underrated. He upstaged Brando in some of their scenes together. Cobb's menacing certainty about his evil manipulative ways was a perfect foil for Brando's confusion. Their interactions were the best part of the film. I wish the writer had written more scenes with the two of them squaring off. I was not too impressed by the weepy Eva Marie Saint or the saintly Karl Malden. On the Waterfront tells a universal story. It is a very depressing film when you think about it. I can never forget the final scenes when Brando is being beaten up by the thugs and all the longshoremen simply crowd around and look on. The shots of them passively crowding around the brawling men like sheep was clearly used by Kazan to convey their impotence. Best Regards, Pimpin. (8/10)

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