On the Waterfront Review

Overall I found the film, On the Waterfront by Elia Kazan, to be decent. It wasn’t a movie I would watch again however, I don’t think of the time I spent watching it to be a waste either. I did think that the film was effective in providing a strong statement. At the end of the movie you had the feeling of ‘wow, Terry really did something powerful’. Despite having some overly dramatic scenes, mostly centering on the relationship between Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) and Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), and annoying characters (Edie), the film really left an impressive sentiment. Again, On the Waterfront wasn’t stellar, but if you are looking for a way to kill a couple hours of boredom it might be a good way to do so.
If you do choose to watch the film you might realize some very intriguing literary aspects. The setting of the movie is a large city in a cold climate. This setting highlights the callousness of the people’s surroundings. In addition to the setting there is a lot of symbolism. In the movie there is a recurring emphasis on birds; pigeons, hawks, and canaries. The pigeons represent the common person. They are average creatures. Some are better than others, but none are truly outstanding and they are always fearful of the hawk. The hawks represent the fierce, unbeatable mob. The third bird is the canary. The canary is the light in darkness, the leader of good, the thing that takes down evil. Terry is comparable to the canary. He himself says to the cops who are supposed to protect him, “Trailing me like that, you make me feel like a canary.” Terry is the one who turns the tide against the mob and leads to the mob’s downfall. Despite Terry’s reluctance to help in the end he does. Which leads me to my next literary aspect, theme. The theme of this film is that you should follow your morals and stand up for what you know is right even if the world around you isn’t following suit.
The world around Terry consists of many other characters including Father Berry (Karl Malden), Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), and Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). I found Malden’s portrayal of Father Berry to be very well done. Throughout the entire film I never once felt as though Father Berry didn’t seem like Father Berry. Malden’s interpretation made you believe he was a good man with strong opinions and a strong heart to match. In contrast, I found Eva Marie Saint to be very annoying. I was never really certain what role Edie was supposed to be in the film. Was she a strength? A weakness? Was she helping Terry? Hindering him? I never could figure her out. On the other hand, someone who was very easy to figure out was Lee Cobb, as Johnny Friendly. The moment you saw Cobb you knew he was the bad guy. His actions, his speech, and even his clothing made him the dire enemy of the union. Speaking of clothing, the costume choices for the movie made it really easy to tell who was well off and who wasn’t. The mobsters had nice coats which weren’t damaged at all while the union workers had bedraggled clothing. Also, the clothing was made for cold weather and left a definite impression of the harshness of the environment the people faced.
This harsh environment was in stark contrast to the music playing. Every song had a big band feel and left you wondering if the actors were going to break out into dance. The music was interesting but I’m not sure how well it fit to the story of the film. Also, the majority of the shots were long. These shots made the story seem to drag out. I really felt that constantly long shots really took away from the film as a whole. However, when there was editing the film was very engaging. The editing helped to build up drama and emphasize certain scenes.
I found that On the Waterfront and All My Sons were quite similar. In both works there is the dilemma of choosing between looking out for yourself and looking out for others. In All My Sons, Joe has to decide whether to sell the faulty parts and risk the pilots’ well being or not sell them and risk his family’s well being. In On the Waterfront, Terry has to decide whether to be a whistleblower on the mob and risk his family’s (himself and his brother) lives or to not tell the truth and continue to allow the mob to cause the union workers to suffer. The major difference is that Joe decides to put his family first while Terry decides to put the union workers first. This of course, as stories tend to go, leads to Joe’s demise and Terry being a hero. How classic.
As I said in the beginning of this review I, personally, wouldn’t watch On the Waterfront more than once. However, it is a decent film and could be a good way to entertain yourself for a couple of hours. The actors, for the most part, are impressive at portraying their characters and the movie has a lot of very interesting symbolism which makes you think more than the movie itself does. Therefore, on the whole, I would give this movie 7 out of ten and say it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend a Friday night.



Works Cited
On the Waterfront. Dir. Elia Kazan. Perf. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Eve Marie Saint, John Hamilton, Leif Erikson, and Pat Henning.