The Waterfront - Movie Review Example

On the Waterfront is a 1954 film directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg and stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger and Lee J. Cobb. It is based on a series of articles written by Malcolm Johnson for New York Sun. The movie, a controversial and powerful part drama part gangster film about mob violence, trade unions and the corruption among longshoreman, is set on New York's waterfront docks and it is about the struggle of workers for work and dignity Malcolm Johnson, born on 24 September, 1904 and graduated from Mercer University in 1926, was a noted investigative journalist. He wrote a series of 24 parts called Crimes on the Waterfront' about the dock strikes, published in New York Sun. The series exposed corrupt practices, bribery, extortion, theft, murder and the mob's influence on New York's waterfront. He eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for the series in 1949. The Sun' articles formed the basis for the movie "On the Waterfront". But before Budd Schulberg started working on the screenplay for the movie, Arthur Miller wrote a play "The Bottom of the River' about the efforts of Peter Panto who was murdered by the mob while struggling to organize the dock workers of Brooklyn Red Hook district in the 1930s. In 1950, Miller rewrote the play as the screenplay "The Hook" for Elia Kazan. Kazan wanted to make the movie but was rejected by the studios. Reason was the pressure imposed by HUAC on the Columbia Pictures studio chief Harry Cohn. Miller was told to change the villains to evil communists from corrupt union officials and gangsters. Arthur Miller refused and was replaced by Budd Schulberg, who wrote On the Waterfront' as a result. (Tom Dirks) The story is like this. Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) is the union boss, who rules the waterfront. He is responsible for a number of murders but police couldn't take any action against him as the witnesses never testify against him i.e. they play deaf and dumb ("plead D &D"). Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker and a former boxer who does small jobs due to his brother Charley (Rod Steiger) influence. Karl Malden plays the role of Father Barry who encourages Terry, stuck in a moral struggle between right and wrong. Eva Marie Saint plays the role Edie Doyle, sister of the dockworker who gets murdered because he was going to testify against Johnny Friendly. Terry feels somewhat responsible for the death because he could have Intervened. Because of a love towards Edie and encouragement from Father Berry, Terry agrees to testify against Johnny Friendly and his own brother Charley in a federal Crime Commission investigation. (Tom Dirks) On the Waterfront' is said to be a sort of autobiographical film by Elia Kazan. It was his reaction to the criticism he faced for his testimony before the House Un- American Committee, in which he "named names" in 1952. Kazan, during his theatre days in1930s, had been a member of the Communist Party. The Theater also included several professionals who were Communists. At first Kazan agreed to testify before HUAC but refused to name other members, but because of increasing pressure from Hollywood studio management, he provided the names of former Party members. Later, Kazan explained that he resented the Party's to force their Agenda on artists and he felt the testimony was in the best interest of the country. Though the testimony was due to the threat of being blacklisted from the Hollywood studios, Kazan was hated by his former friends. Terry's testimony against Johnny Friendly and his mob was perceived by some as Kazan's reaction to his critics. In 1951, before Kazan, Budd Schulberg also testified before HUAC. Budd Schulberg born in March27, 1914 was the son of B.P. Schulberg, the head of Paramount Pictures, and Adeline Jaffee-Schulberg. Budd Schulberg volunteered to testify when screenwriter Richard Collins testified before HUAC and named him as a former Communist. On his approach towards writing the screenplay, Schulberg wrote in a 1953 New York Times article," I had taken a rather unorthodox approach to the writing of the screenplay, applying not a month or two, but years of my life to absorbing everything I could about the New York waterfront, becoming a frequent visitant of the West Side Manhattan and Jersey City bars, interviewing longshoreman, union leaders and getting to know the fearless and outspoken labor priest from St. Xavier's in New York's Hell's Kitchen." (Michael Mills) "The fearless and outspoken labor priest" was Father John M. Corridan, on whom the character of Father Berry was based. A graduate from Manhattan's Regis High School, Father Corridan was assigned to the Xavier Institute of Industrial Relations on Manhattan's West Side and became a passionate advocate of reform in the International Longshoreman's Association waterfront union. He collaborated with Malcolm Johnson in Johnson's articles on waterfront corruption. The first reaction Schulberg got from Father Corridan when told about writing the screenplay was," We don't need a Hollywood movie. We're doing tough stuff down here." But soon he helped Schulberg and introduced him to the workers who used to gather in local bars and in the basement of St. Francis Xavier Labor School. Schulberg later recalled that most of the dialogues of Father Berry was of Father Corridan and all he did was to dramatize the dialogues. (Ryan Stellabotte) During his research Schulberg found out that the bars were used as different headquarters, like mob bars and bars friendly to the union insurgents. He also observed that all the longshoreman used to wait in a local gin mill and dock bosses selected only few longshoreman whom they needed for a particular job leaving other longshoremen in fear. The practice was demeaning, rife with favoritism and, Schulberg said, a "way of keeping the men in fear, intimidated, playing one man versus the other." Father Corridan was working against this system by teaching the longshoremen what their rights were, in a way building a rebel movement, the similar circumstances were shown in On the Waterfront. Terry Malloy, the lead character of the movie, was based on whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony "Tony Mike" De Vincenzo. Though in 1955, De Vincenzo filed a lawsuit against Columbia Pictures due to this. He won a small out-of-court settlement. Budd Schulberg attended the testimony of Vincenzo everyday in front of the Waterfront Commission. Vincenzo was known as a whistle blower against the corrupt International Longshoremen's Association union. "You don't understand! I could have had class, I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum, which is what I am, lets face it. It was you Charlie" The famous line said by Terry Malloy in the movie was voted as the third most memorable line in the cinema history by American Film Institute in a 2005 poll. Budd Schulberg credited Roger Donoghue for inspiring the line. Roger Donoghue, a prize-fighter boxer, born in November20 1930, was also Brando's trainer for the movie. Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb, was another character in the movie modeled after a real life mobster mobster Albert Anastasia, chief executioner of Murder, Inc. Albert Anastasia was a top enforcer for the crime family that ran the Hoboken docks, the Luciano. In 1979, Clemente and other members of the Genovese family were indicted for corruption and racketeering on the New York waterfront. Like the characters several scenes were also inspired from real events. One of the scene takes place when one of the worker ( Doogan) is killed by the union leaders. Father Berry shouts near the dead man's body, "Some people think the Crucifixion only took place on Calvary, but they better wise up! Every time the mob puts the crusher on a good man, tries to keep him from doing his duty as a citizen, it's a crucifixation." Budd Schulberg heard the speech by Father Corridan about Jesus and decided to put the sermon in the movie. Same was the case with the dialogue of Terry when his brother Charley dies. Budd Schulberg remembers listening to one of the longshoreman say, "I'll take it out of their skulls!" and used the same lines for Terry instead of some old clich like "I'll get em if it's the last thing I do." Another incident was when Slim gives his name as "Mladen Sekulovich", which is his co-star Karl Malden's real name. Malden had to change his real name for the sake of his movie career. He deeply regretted and that's the reason why he tried to make amends by showing his real name in movies in one way or another. Tony Galento, Tami Mauriello and Abe Simon, who plays Johnny Friendly's heavies, were all former professional boxers and opponents of Joe Louis for the heavyweight world title. Pat Henning's character on a Father John disciple named Arthur Browne.Many real longshoremen from Hoboken, New Jersey were used as extras. The New York State Crime Commission was established by Governor Thomas E. Dewey in 1951 to "investigate generally the relationship between organized crime and any unit of government of the state and local criminal law enforcement." Governor Dewey also directed the Crime Commission to address "whether any new State agency of investigation or supervision is desirable to keep a continuous check on criminal law enforcement throughout the state." During the initial public hearing held by the New York State Crime Commission with the assistance of the New Jersey Law Enforcement Council, the corruption on the waterfront in the Port of New York was documented. As a result, with the approval of the Congress and the President of the United States, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor was created. The Kefauver Committee, was the first committee to be made up of senators around the country to expose organized crime. The committee was headed by Estes Kefauver. Born on July 26 1903 in Madisonville, Tennessee, Estes Kefauver attended the University of Tennessee and Yale University. The Committee, travelled all over the country investigating the level of corruption, held hearings in fourteen cities and heard testimony from over 600 witnesses. Many of the witnesses were high-profile crime bosses, including such well-known names as Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello. A number of politicians also appeared before the Committee and saw their careers ruined. Among them was former Governor Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey and Mayor William O'Dwyer of New York City. The Committee's hearings, which were televised live just as many Americans were buying televisions, made Kefauver nationally famous and introduced many Americans to the concept of a criminal organization known as the Mafia for the first time ever. After the hearings were complete, the Syndicate lost many of their valuable members. Willie Moretti, was executed because he was becoming mentally unstable and Syndicate feared he would reveal their secrets. Some members got deported and some stepped down from their position. Also, Frank Costello added the famous "hand ballet" to the Kefauver Committee. Agreeing to appear at the hearings on the condition that his face would not appear on television, the cameras were forced to focus only on his hands, which he kept constantly moving, entertaining many while still revealing nothing of himself. ("Kefauver Hearings") With a budget slightly less than $1 million, On the Waterfront' was hugely successful, critically and financially. The movie received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight Academy Awards including: Best Picture and Director (Kazan), Best Story and Screenplay (Schulberg), Best Actor (Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Evan Marie Saint), Best Cinematography (Boris Kaufman), Best Art Direction (Richard Day), and Best Film Editing (Gene Milford). The movie also got selected as number 8 on AFI's 100 YEARS...100 MOVIES and in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #19 Greatest Movie of All Time. Works Cited 1- Stellabotte,Ryan "The Priest Who Made Budd Schulberg Run: On the Waterfront and Jesuit Social Action" Fordham Online May 2003, Fordham University 2003.< http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/Public_Affairs/Inside_Fordham/Inside_Fordham_Archi/May_2003/News/The_Priest_Who_Made__11100.asp > 2- Dirks, Tim. "On The Waterfront (1954)" < http://www.filmsite.org/onth3.html > 3- Mills, Michael. "On The Waterfront-The Best American Movie Ever Produced", < http://www.moderntimes.com/waterfront > 4- "Kefauver Hearings". Wikipedia. . Read More