Actors - On the Waterfront

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	Actors - On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront is an American 1954 film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen, and became a standard of its kind. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, and Karl Malden. The film deals with social issues which paralleled the emerging organization of labor.

Plot

In On the Waterfront, its protagonist's (Terry Malloy's) fight against corruption was modeled after whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony DiVincenzo, who testified before a real-life Waterfront Commission on the facts of life on the Hoboken docks and had suffered a degree of ostracization for his deed. DiVincenzo sued & settled, many years after, with Columbia Pictures over the appropriation of what he considered his story. DiVincenzo recounted his story to Schulberg during a month-long session of waterfront barroom meetings--which some claim never occurred--even though Shulberg attended De Vincenzo's waterfront commission testimony every day during the hearing. Johnny Friendly was based on mobster Albert Anastasia, chief executioner of Murder, Inc. The story is both based and was filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Parallels with Kazan's life

It is seen by many as a jab by Kazan at his former close friend, Arthur Miller, who along with Lillian Hellman was bitterly and openly resentful of Kazan's "betrayal" of film artists to the HUAC as communists. Specifically, it may be a direct response to Miller's A View from the Bridge, which tells a very similar story but portrays the protagonist in disesteem. On the Waterfront, being about a heroic mob informer, is widely considered to be Kazan's answer to his critics. Miller's The Crucible, about a heroic New England Puritan who chooses to die rather than make false accusations of witchcraft, is considered a follow-up response to Kazan.

Awards and recognition

The film later was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Terry Malloy's line in the film, "You don't understand. 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", was voted in a 2005 poll by the American Film Institute as the third most memorable line in cinema history .

The film, and leading lady Eve Marie Saint, are included in the lyrics of the song Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.

It was the winner of eight Oscars:

Best Actor
- Marlon Brando
Best Picture - Sam Spiegel, producer
Best Supporting Actress
- Eva Marie Saint
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White - Richard Day
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Boris Kaufman
Directing - Elia Kazan
Film Editing - Gene Milford
Writing, Story and Screenplay - Budd Schulberg

Nominations

The film also received an additional four Oscar nominations:

Best Supporting Actor
- Lee J. Cobb
Best Supporting Actor
- Karl Malden
Best Supporting Actor
- Rod Steiger
Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Leonard Bernstein

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for On the Waterfront ]

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