On the Waterfront

Terry Malloy is a former prize fighter coerced by corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly into luring fellow dockworker Joey Doyle onto a rooftop. Joey is pushed off the roof, and Terry is visibly upset because he believed that the union thugs were merely going to talk with Joey about his rumored plan to testify against Friendly to the Waterfront Crime Commission. The other dockworkers remain silent, in fear for their lives. Terry reconnects with Joey's sister Edie, who shames the local priest Father Barry into calling the dockworkers to a meeting. Barry tries to persuade them to stand together, but Friendly has sent Terry to report on what is said. Terry is mocked by the other dockworkers before the meeting is broken up by Friendly's men. Terry helps Edie escape while Timothy "Kayo" Dugan is persuaded by Father Barry to testify. Friendly reveals to Terry that Dugan testified behind closed doors, and the next day Dugan is killed by a load of whiskey barrels set loose by Friendly's men.

Father Barry makes an impassioned speech reminding the longshoremen that Christ walks among them, saying that every murder is a crucifixion. Terry is still unwilling to testify, even after he is subpoenaed, while the other dockworkers also refuse to testify. Terry's guilt and regret grow along with his feelings for Edie as he sees her relentless pursuit of justice. He confesses his role in Joey's death to Father Barry who persuades him to confess to Edie. Horrified, Edie runs away. A crime commission investigator reminds Terry of his last great fight, which he threw for a bet after Johnny Friendly "bought a piece" of him. Friendly's men witness Terry's conversation with the investigator and Friendly tells Charley, Terry's brother, to persuade Terry to keep quiet by offering him a cushy job. Terry resists and Charley pulls a gun, which Terry gently waves away. Terry expresses regret about throwing his best fight, and blames Charley for having set up the fix, ruining his career. Charley gives Terry the gun and tells him to run. Terry goes to Edie's apartment, where she refuses to let him in. He breaks in and insists she loves him and they kiss, before Terry's name is called through the open window. The men down on the street shout that his brother is waiting and Terry runs out to help him, with Edie following.

After nearly being run down by a truck, Edie and Terry find Charley's body hung on a hook in the alley. Terry goes to a bar to shoot Friendly but Father Barry distracts him while he is waiting and the other union men run out to warn Friendly. Barry persuades Terry to fight Friendly by testifying in court. Terry gives damning testimony to the commission, and Friendly is cut off from his powerful friends while facing indictment. Friendly bars Terry from any union jobs. Refusing to leave the city with Edie, Terry appears at the dock for the daily ritual where workers are chosen from the assembled longshoremen. Everyone is called to work except Terry, who taunts Friendly outside the nearby shack, shouting that he is proud of testifying. Friendly goads Terry into attacking and is getting beaten until he calls for help from his thugs, who stop just shy of killing Terry. The longshoremen refuse to work unless Terry is allowed to work as well, and Joey's father pushes Friendly into the river when he tries to bully the men. Father Barry tells a badly injured Terry that he lost the battle but has a chance to win the war if he can walk into the warehouse. Father Barry and Edie get him on his feet and Terry stumbles up the gangway to stand before the warehouse, where the boss nods to Terry and tells them to get to work. The men follow Terry inside, ignoring Friendly as he lashes out with empty threats and his fists. The door closes behind them, leaving Friendly out in the cold.

Upon its release, the film received positive reviews from critics, and was a commercial success, earning an estimated $4.2 million at the North American box office in 1954.[9] In his July 29, 1954, review, New York Times critic A. H. Weiler called the film "an uncommonly powerful, exciting, and imaginative use of the screen by gifted professionals".[10]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critical score of 99% from 99 reviews with an average rating of 9.2/10 and a critical consensus of "With his electrifying performance in Elia Kazan's thought-provoking, expertly constructed melodrama, Marlon Brando redefined the possibilities of acting for film and helped permanently alter the cinematic landscape".[11] Gaining the Academy Award for Best Actor and being named the greatest and second-greatest film performance of all time by Aaron West of Criterion and by Premiere respectively,[12][13][14] Brando's performance is regarded as one of the watershed moments in the history of movies.[15][16]

Through his portrayal of Terry Malloy, Brando popularized method acting and conclusively exemplified the power of Stanislavski-based approach in cinema. Praising Brando in 2004, director Martin Scorsese noted that "[w]hen you watch his work in On the Waterfront ... you’re watching the purest poetry imaginable, in dynamic motion".[17] Kazan, the director of the film, would later write in his book, "If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is."[18]

Al Pacino, recounting his own memories on first seeing On the Waterfront, told Playboy in a 1979 interview that he concentrated more on the lead actor than the film itself, "I couldn't move. I couldn't leave the theatre. I’d never seen the like of it."[19] Anthony Hopkins said, "When you see Brando in the famous cab scene in On the Waterfront, it's still breathtaking."[20] In a eulogy for Brando, Jack Nicholson described his display "probably the height of any age", and added that, "You just couldn’t take your eyes off the guy. He was spellbinding."[21]

Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle and Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy

Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy and Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in the film's trailer

Karl Malden as Father Barry, with Eva Marie Saint

In 1989, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 1995, it made it on the Vatican's list of 45 greatest films.[23]

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – #8
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Terry Malloy – #23 Hero
  • Johnny Friendly – Nominated Villain
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am." – #3
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – #22
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers – #36
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #19
• AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Gangster film

The first home video release of the film was by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment in 1982, on VHS and Beta. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video later re-released it in 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively, the latter being a part of the Columbia Classics line-up. Columbia TriStar later reissued the film on VHS in 1995 as part of the line-up's "Studio Heritage Collection", and the first DVD version was released in 2001. Among the special features is the featurette "Contender: Mastering the Method", a video photo gallery, an interview with Elia Kazan, an audio commentary, filmographies, production notes, and theatrical trailers. The film has been added to the Criterion Collection.

The 2013 Criterion Collection release presents the film in three aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.85:1, and 1.33:1. The accompanying booklet explains the reasoning behind this choice: "In 1953, Columbia Pictures was transitioning to the new widescreen format and declared that all its upcoming films, including On The Waterfront, would be suitable for projection in any aspect ratio from the full frame of 1.33:1 to the then widest standard of 1.85:1. The customary frame of European cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Twelve Angry Men, Baby Doll) split the difference at 1.66:1, so that all that was required was for him to leave extra room at the top and bottom of the frame and make sure that nothing essential would be lost in the widescreen presentation. At its premiere in 1954, On The Waterfront was projected at 1.85:1. Over subsequent decades, millions of television viewers became accustomed to seeing the film with the open-matte 1.33:1 framing, a presentation that has carried over into the home video era. Here, for the first time, Criterion is presenting the film in all three aspect ratios so that viewers can compare and choose the version they prefer."

The film script was adapted to stage by Schulberg. It opened on Broadway in November 1984. It included technical innovations for the time, including lasers, filmlike scenic dissolves and sounds that enveloped the audience. The story is a little different, with the motivations of Father Barry made more explicit, and the ending is less happy and more realistic.[24] It was revised in 1995 and lasted for only 8 performances, losing $2.6 million, a record on Broadway for a non-musical at the time.[25]

The Indian film Ghulam (1998) is inspired by On the Waterfront.[26]

• Raymond, Allen, Waterfront Priest (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955); foreword by On the Waterfront screenwriter Budd Schulberg
• Clark, Neil G. (2017). Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront. New Jersey: Barricade Books. ISBN 978-1569808139.
• Rapf, Joanna E. (2003). On the Waterfront. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-79400-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to On the Waterfront (1954 film).

Wikiquote has quotations related to On the Waterfront.

• On the Waterfront essay by Robert Sklar on the National Film Registry website
• On the Waterfront at the American Film Institute Catalog
• On the Waterfront at IMDb
• On the Waterfront at the TCM Movie Database
• On the Waterfront at AllMovie
• On the Waterfront at Rotten Tomatoes
• filmsite.org
• Bibliography of articles and books about On the Waterfront via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
• On the Waterfront: Everybody Part of Everybody Else an essay by Michael Almereyda at the Criterion Collection
• On the Waterfront essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 488-490