ON THE WATERFRONT

On the Waterfront (1954)

Running time: 108 minutes

Director: Elia Kazan

I could've had class. I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am. Terry Malloy

Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a former boxer, does a bit of work as an errand boy for Johnny Friendly (Lee J Cobb) – a vicious local gangster and a corrupt trade union leader. Terry is riddled with guilt because of his role in luring a potential court witness to his death. His sense of guilt deepens as he falls in love with the dead man's sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint).

Malloy's conscience troubles him, and he distances himself from Friendly and the boys. He realises that Johnny Friendly and the corrupt local union branch oppresses the ordinary dock workers much more than any bosses. The code against speaking out against the union leadership is enforced with brutal violence. Joey Doyle was thrown of a roof after Malloy betrayed him. Another man has a crane dump its load on top of him while working in a ship's hold. Friendly and his henchmen decide whose face fits, who gets the work in a degrading line-up each morning and who is left behind to starve.

Worried about his loyalty, Friendly orders Terry's brother Charley Malloy (Rod Steiger) to kill him. Charley can't bring himself to do it and is himself murdered on Friendly's orders. Terry then combines with Edie and a local priest, Father Barry (Karl Malden) to resist union intimidation and bring Johnny Friendly to justice. This sets the scene for a showdown between the two men; the corrupt union boss and his former flunkey.

This film won eight Oscars. Deservedly so! Unlike his character, Brando has class. He was not only a contender but a winner. The director, Kazan was hated by many of the Hollywood liberal set for testifying to the House Un-American Activites Committee on the extent of communist infiltration of the media. This powerful film amounted to the case for the defence when it came to informers: the informer, not a hero but a troubled man struggling with his uneasy conscience and trying to do the right thing.