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> On the Waterfront (Special Edition) |
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see larger picture
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Staring:
Marlon Brando,
Karl Malden,
Lee J. Cobb,
Rod Steiger,
Pat Henning
Director:
Elia Kazan
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $19.94
Our Price: $11.05
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
EAN: 9780767804271
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Special Edition, NTSC
ISBN: 0767804279
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2001-10-23
Running Time: 108
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1954 |
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Product Description
An ex-fighter is caught up in the waterfront gangs after the death of his brother.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 23-OCT-2001
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video
Marlon Brando's famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech is such a warhorse by now that a lot of people probably feel they've seen this picture already, even if they haven't. And many of those who have seen it may have forgotten how flat-out thrilling it is. For all its great dramatic and cinematic qualities, and its fiery social criticism, Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront is also one of the most gripping melodramas of political corruption and individual heroism ever made in the United States, a five-star gut-grabber. Shot on location around the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, it tells the fact-based story of a longshoreman (Brando's Terry Malloy) who is blackballed and savagely beaten for informing against the mobsters who have taken over his union and sold it out to the bosses. (Karl Malden has a more conventional stalwart-hero role, as an idealistic priest who nurtures Terry's pangs of conscience.) Lee J. Cobb, who created the role of Willy Loman in Death of Salesman under Kazan's direction on Broadway, makes a formidable foe as a greedy union leader. --David Chute
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 Walk like a man, 2009-10-18
This is a movie about pidgins, both literally and figuratively. Local priest (Karl Malden) goes up against cabal.
This might be entertainment for some and was a type of movie art that came and passed. This presentation is a good variant of the genre. People that enjoy "Citizen Kane" will enjoy this film. The acting is touted as great, however everyone acted the same as it is a 1954 style; if it is so good out of its time and place there would be movies like this today. I suggest that a better variant is "Funeral in Berlin".
For people that look at other film dimensions the music is over the top heavy handed. The one plus is that the music (Leonard Bernstein) usually does not compete with the dialog. Unfortunately the one exception is the "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender." statement where all the violins break out next the rush of horns and whatnot.
I will not go into detail on the movie as there is just the chance you have only heard about this movie and haven't seen it yet, but be prepared for stool pigeons and dead pigeons.
After 50 plus years the film is sort of out of place. So to gain a good perspective on why it is so popular you will need to watch the commentaries and other DVD extras. Then re-watch the movie.
The Teahouse Of The August Moon (DVD) Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford
Absence of Malice ~ Paul Newman
Being A Contender, 2009-10-03
Marlon Brando starred in one of his least pretentious roles in this film about a dock worker in NYC who decides to fight the corrupt officials who run the docks. Eva Marie Saint plays the young woman whose brother is murdered by them. Of course, Marlon who had something to do with the brother's murder, and Eva Marie fall in love but Karl Malden as the priest keeps it on a higher plane. The moral struggle against corrupt gangs who intimidate and murder to influence the community and the struggle to live a moral life is a classic tale which carries a powerful whop!
The best of Marlo Brando, 2010-01-24
On the Waterfront is a real classic film. The interwoven story between the shipyards workers and the Union held by a group of exploiting mafioso bosses is at the heart of the movie. It deals with questions of conscience, of right and wrong, of retribution and seeks to get the viewer involved actively. It represents an era of great difficulty for the masses and the impossibility to extricate oneself from the mafia's stranglehold on workers. It takes an accident to start unrolling the entanglement in which all were.
Let down by expectations, 2009-10-23
After a recent walk through the world of Kazan, reading T.Williams' plays, plus his memoirs, plus Kazan's memoirs, and then watching some of the Williams movies, not all by Kazan, and some of Kazan's other films, after non-Williams texts, I had, for unclear reasons, postponed watching the Waterfront until now. (Maybe just because nobody in this house wanted to watch it with me. Despite Brando. Which is surprising, as all other inhabitants here are female, in homo sapiens as well as in house cat species.)
The Kazan experience prior to the Waterfront exposure was mixed. I am not sure I think Kazan was such a great director. His scenes are frequently awkward, his actors often move like zombies, his pathos is most of the time over the board. Sometimes he was lucky: the Streetcar movie is great, because it is a great play and he was lucky with the cast. Brando was at home there. Malden was ridiculous as usual, but it did not do much damage there.
I watched Kazan's fiasco with East of Eden, which, to me, is one of the worst Oscar winners that I ever watched. Unbearably ridiculous. James Dean was unbelievably unbelievable. (The book is useless, but the movie is endlessly worse. I say this as a Steinbeck fan.)
Now I found myself `alone at home' and decided to watch the Waterfront. Let me come up with my version of the truth right away: this is not in line with my idea of great cinema. It is cheap melodrama with a completely over-acting Brando and a ridiculous Malden. Cobb is ok as mobster boss, but those roles are easy. Eve Sainte Marie is actually quite good as pure Irish maiden, she is coming close to saving the film for me, but not quite, after all.
Another complaint: Bernstein's music is totally indequate for the subject! This whole thing is kitsch!
Apart from that, one needs to see the questionable role of the film in the political scenery of the time. After all, Kazan himself had just `talked', so it was in his interest to portrait `talking' in a positive light. The enemy in the film is the trade union, which has been usurped by the Irish mob. I am quite sure, or rather, I will readily believe, that this kind of situation has happened in real life, but I am not willing to accept a stereotypical satanification of the unions as just `social drama'. This is also political propaganda, and it works on the antenna of the audience. Unions equal mob. Not seeing that dimension of the reality of the film would be naive.
Great Stars in a Dated Film, 2010-02-25
Presents many great stars in the prime of their careers--Brando, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint (in her first starring role.) Yet, in the context of contemporary standards. the plotline is clearly dated, and the acting somewhat histrionic and stereotypical. As a result, the viewing experience is just not as good as one might expect given this film's classic status.
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