On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront (1954) is set on the New Jersey docks. Terry Malloy is a former boxer doing small jobs for the mob that controls the longshoremen's union. He is used, without knowing it, in a killing, and has to decide whether to testify. The shadow over it belongs to its director. Elia Kazan named eight people before the congressional committee in 1952. The film is widely read as his answer: a story in which informing is the right thing to do. The original script came from Arthur Miller and was called The Hook; after Kazan's testimony Miller refused to rewrite it. Kazan then hired Budd Schulberg. Schulberg spent two years on the waterfront. In his own words he sat in on the meetings the rebels held and roamed the dockside bars, and the authenticity of the script comes from there. It was shot in Hoboken in 36 days, on the docks, in the slums, the bars and on the rooftops. It won eight Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor for Marlon Brando, Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction and Original Screenplay. It runs 108 minutes. Good for: Brando's performance, American cinema of the fifties, and stories about class and crime. Less good for: the moral argument is contested, and it tastes different once read as its director's personal defence. The one woman largely functions as a conscience, and the ending is too clean a victory.