On The Waterfront

First, a small note; I will not be censoring myself about spoilers, just writing whatever comes to mind so a "spoiler warning" for anything I write will have to be implied. Also I will be writing these like I write school essays, on autopilot, so they could end up being very long or very short.

I have always been wary about watching "On The Waterfront". I am well aware of its status as a great movie, having won the Best Picture Oscar in 1954, Brando's performance has gone down in history as iconic and the "I coulda been a contender..." scene has been quoted by almost everyone. The cast other than Brando is filled with luminaries like Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint, as well as numerous names from the NY stage of that era. However, for years the concept of longshore union corruption kept me from seeing it. I just had no interest at all in that story area. Well, Netflix has had it available for the "Watch Instantly" feature for months now and I figured it was time to bite the bullet and check off another of the great ones off my list.

Well, I can't say I was surprised in the least...It was definitely a great movie and all the major actors pulled off the great performances typical of actors of that era. Nevertheless, it didn't quite break through the upper echelon into my top movie tier. The plot is incredibly cut and dry, especially when stretched for 105 minutes. Lee J. Cobb is in charge of one of the unions for longshoremen in New York (probably near Manhattan since MSG and the Polo Grounds are referenced). He's corrupt and takes in a ton of money. Rod Steiger is his righthand man with the nickname "The Gent" because he's educated, which is pretty awesome. Steiger who also played Jud Fry in the movie version of "Oklahoma" and was the original Chief Gillepsie in "In The Heat of the Night" before Archie Bunker took over for the TV show is unrecogizable here. He's a far cry from the crazy southern redneck roles I'd seen him in before. Brando is Steiger's brother, a former boxer who blew his career by throwing fights for Cobb and Steiger when he was younger. He's still somewhat young, but with his boxing potential washed up, he spends his time doing odd jobs for Cobb like making sure snitches get tossed off buildings. He also likes to hang out on top of his roof with pigeons like that guy from "Hey Arnold" (one of my favorite episodes).

So, Brando witnesses a future snitch get rubbed out, but becomes attracted to the victims younger sister Eva Marie Saint (North By Northwest). So they start hanging out and she knows he's involved with the corrupt union responsible for her brother's death, but is still shocked when he admits to her that he was the one who set her brother up. Karl Malden looking shockingly young at 42 is the priest who likes to drink and fight and tries to rally all the workers together to stand up to Cobb's corruption. He has some great scenes and an awesome monologue trying to convince the ridiculously scared workers to grow some, but at the end I was questioning his motives because he always seemed to have a smile on his face at the most inoppurtune times. Like, Malden tells Brando to tell Saint of his guilt in her brother's death and she freaks out and runs away, Malden watching from a distance turns around to the camera has a little grin on his face, almost like he set Brando up....hmm.

Brando is at his most Brandoist and I mean that in a good way. He's ridiculously awesome and having grown up hearing people do marble mouthed Brando impressions, I just can't reconcile the two together. He makes what he's doing so easy and Terry Malloy is a far more interesting character than he should be because of it. Malloy is constantly talked about as being dumb which Brando definitely pulls off, but he's also able to underplay his emotions to the point that when he does go off about something, it means more. Lee J. Cobb is very similar to his character from 12 Angry Men here, just with more of a swagger. I wish I could have lived in a world where actors like Cobb, Brando, Steiger, and Malden were regularly on Broadway. Fred Gwynne from the Munsters shows up as one of Cobb's lackeys and I can't imagine how he got roles for the decade before the Munsters because he looks like Frankenstein even when he's just suppose to be playing a tall guy.

Anyway, as this was my first time watching this, I enjoyed it, but I can't see this having much replay value other than the performances. And while Eva Marie Saint is very good in this, like much better than most actresses today, the scenes with her and Brando got very boring. I'm not much for the romance and they paled in comparison to everytime the big four were onscreen. Steiger in particular only had 3 or 4 scenes and stole them in my eyes everytime. He was like Robert Duvall in "The Godfather" in that way in my opinion. By not being a great big character he was able to stand out and draw some attention.

Oh and one more thing, other than the union corruption, this movie doesn't make dock work look all that bad. You get to hang out with your buds and unload crates, make some money, and if you're on Lee J. Cobb's side you get to fill your pockets with a ton of cash. Everyone from your neighborhood would go down and unload some irish whisky, then go drink. Everything looks better in black & white, but it's too bad things aren't as simple as they were back then, and I know I don't really need to elaborate on that.

Not sure what will be next....

Let me also throw out a recommendation for "The Hollies Sing Dylan" album that I've been listening to constantly for a year or more. I know people usually frown on Dylan covers (other than Hendrix), but this album is awesome and their versions of "Blowin In The Wind", "Just Like A Woman" and "My Back Pages" are better than any other in my opinion. British Invasion rules all.