Elia Kazan is known for making his actors give their hinder percent performance. Marlon Brando is one of the many disciples of Kazan. Their collaboration in “On the Waterfront” became both critical and commercial success. Also got nominated for Academy awards. After watching and researching about classic movies I noticed a pattern. Almost all the movies that have become a classic are the first of its kind to tell such a story and the story was relevant to that period of time. This movie was made in 1954 and dealt with a story of dock workers and the mob.
During the great depression many people were left unemployed and the rate of crimes was high. One of the dock workers will be murdered and the search for the reason for the murder begins. The movie revolves around Terry Mallory a dock worker who will be friends with the murdered person and who will also be involved in mob activities. Terry will be put in a dilemma, if he tells the truth he will get killed, if he lies he will hate himself for the rest of his life. What would you choose? What is greater, truth or faith? These are the few of the conflicts seen in “On the Waterfront”.
Terry Mallory played by Marlon Brando is epic when it comes to performance. Brando is one of the very few of the actors who understands the subtleties of acting. He tries to get the least amount of movements to get most of his acting. This minimalistic approach towards his craft is one of the many differentiating factor that Brando poses.
The movie depicts the phase in history where the world was suffering through a lot of pain and employment. The employment unions will be controlled by the mob and they will be further sucking the blood of the employees. Watching movies like this will help us learn a lot.
This movie is known for its climax scene. When Terry will be getting beaten by the mob his coworkers will be looking at him helplessly even though they all have outnumbered the mob. Terry has to just get up and stand on his feet to make sure the workers spirit remain unbroken.
