On the Waterfront Reviews and Ratings


  • TGambino
    June 29, 2009
    TGambino
    Decided to watch this movie as I was in awe of Brandos acting ability in The Godfather. Film was quite good, Taking into considerationg it's quite an ancient movie now lol I did Enjot it.
  • leeslynne
    June 26, 2009
    leeslynne
    BRANDO IS FANTASTIC IN THIS..
  • CptFG
    June 19, 2009
    CptFG
    Very sharp dialogue, inspiring themes. Marlon Brando gives the performance of a lifetime.
  • garyX
    June 18, 2009
    garyX
    A longshoreman and ex-boxer has a crisis of conscience when the gangsters who control the union murder a fellow dock worker. On The Waterfront is one of those films that is almost famous for being famous. Nearly everyone can recite Brando's most quoted line, but this infamy means...( read more) its reputation precedes it which can obscure just how good a film is. And this is not just a good film, it's an incredible one. Brando's powerhouse performance has also overshadowed those of the other members of the cast, but Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger and Eva Marie Saint are all worth far more than just an honourable mention, and the classic "I coulda been a contender"scene is just one amongst many memorable and powerful moments; Karl Malden's speech that provokes Terry's change of heart, the discovery of his brother, the confession to Edie in the boatyard...the list goes on. Examinig many themes in a multi-layered story of corruption, redemption and one man standing up for what is right, On The Waterfront is one of the true greats of American cinema.
  • impersonatorofclaymation
    June 17, 2009
    impersonatorofclaymation
    Want to see it AGAIN!
  • gilbert1589
    June 7, 2009
    gilbert1589
    just a real good movie here..some good quotes ..
  • svenks
    May 27, 2009
    svenks
    Not sure why it's a classic....Okay movie.
  • mattdonovan2004
    May 19, 2009
    mattdonovan2004
    Marlon Brando's portrayal of Terry Malloy here is a landmark in cinema and is a huge part of making this brutal tale of New York dockers a classic of its kind, along with Leonard Bernstein's music.
  • onidemon
    May 2, 2009
    onidemon
    well, there is the famous speech, but there's also the movie surrounding it. the movie surrounding it is a bit less heart-warming than you might think. it's almost a boilerplate period thriller, but thankfully a good one. and marlon brando is apparently quite the actor for the re...( read more)st of the movie, too!
  • Tetsuo8
    April 24, 2009
    Tetsuo8
    a good piece of acting, what a film!!
  • JcobCrim
    April 21, 2009
    JcobCrim
    One of the best American films I have seen. Marlon Brando blows it out of the water with his performance.
  • ahhh1989
    March 22, 2009
    ahhh1989
    Marlon Brando's best performance and his best film by far. Pretty thrilling to watch.
  • karolinearruda
    March 15, 2009
    karolinearruda
    Marlon Brando rocks.
  • IzzyGlow
    March 4, 2009
    IzzyGlow
    "Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you"

    1/10

    There's only two strong elements in On the Waterfront that are endearing: Brando and the camera. Most of the cast dont understand their purpose.

    Marlon Brando shines as usual but I f...( read more)ound myself with the jarring conviction that I'd just watched a film noir - and a good one, with all the skills and devices of the genre - with a tacked-on happy ending. In a great film, the plot should seem ordained, interlocking, inevitable. Here, I got the impression that the screenplay was more interested in showcasing big scenes for its star, and in an arbitrary moral, however obtained.

    I can't seriously recommend On the Waterfront to anyone, it just doesn't hold up after time.
  • DerekA101
    March 3, 2009
    DerekA101
    "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley."

    Classic film on the AFI top 100 list (#19).

    Released in 1954, On the Waterfront is just as powerful today. Brilliant...( read more)ly crafted by Elia Kazan, this film tells the story of an ex-Prize Fighter (Terry Malloy played by the great Marlon Brando) who works for a corrupt gang leader named Johnny Friendly. When a dock worker speaks out against Friendly, Terry and some other thugs are sent out to silence the snitch. By chance, Terry meets the guy's sister, and a forbidden relationship ensues that will change life on the waterfront forever.

    Marlon Brando gives a breakout performance here in what is probably his greatest performance of all time.

    Even if you haven't seen this film, you have probably heard the "I could been a contenda" speech which speaks volumes about it's everlasting impact through time.

    On the Waterfront justifiably dominated the Oscars in 1955 winning 8 Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Actress.

    A gritty tale of revenge and relevance... the little guy sticking it to the big guy. Often brutal to watch, but On the Waterfront is a film that everyone should see.

    "Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you."
  • deadlynightshade87
    February 16, 2009
    deadlynightshade87
    I'm starting to think I should pay more attention to these old black-and-whites. They always turn out to be surprisingly good. If you had asked me a week ago if I was interested in a gangster film from the fifties starring Marlon Brando I would have turned it down. But as it was ...( read more)required for film class, I went down to rent a movie I was less than interested in. God, was I wrong. This was an incredible movie about standing up for yourself and your beliefs and not letting intimidation stop you from doing what's right. It was extremely inspiring and a hundred times better than I was expecting. I am always blown away by the fact that these old films rely on the greatness of their actors rather than musical cues, as we do now. In the ending scene, when we see Brando finally making his decision and going bravely through with it there on the dock and half-dead, there isn't any major music to speak of. We are not told how to feel by anything outside of the look on Brando's face, his stagger, and his determination. Nowadays, for an inspiring moment, we hear inspiring music that tells us we should feel inspired. This isn't something I think is bad, but to see a film from the fifties where this type of musical cue does not exist, we feel much more genuine about it. We are inspired because of the performance of the actors. I think more people ought to branch out into these types of films, they wouldn't be disappointed.
  • Rikki89
    February 14, 2009
    Rikki89
    Overrated in my opinion but still good, with an excellent script and well acted by Brando especially
  • tsigur
    February 11, 2009
    tsigur
    I coulda been somebody. I could been a contender. All hail Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando. Before DeNiro and Scorcese, this was the director/actor team that set the standard. Brando is what every living actor wants to be in this film, a complete performance with nothing holding bac...( read more)k. And this is another example that Karl Malden is one of the most underrated actors of all time. The entire cast is great. (If I had a time machine, I would constantly cheat on my wife because I am extremely attracted to the women of the golden age of cinema). If you haven't seen this movie, you are missing a cornerstone.
  • joshuasmart
    February 7, 2009
    joshuasmart
    Conservative Movies: 1. Liberal Movies: 1 billion.
  • mpghoul1973
    February 5, 2009
    mpghoul1973
    What can one say that hasnt already been said about this masterpeice!!??
    Brando fucking ruled!!! Thankgod the producers fired Sinatra to hire Brando for the part!! This is Brando at his very best. And Karl Maldens no slouch either!
    If you cant dig this film you better stick to...( read more) Steven Segal films sucka!
  • malacaynomuerto
    January 26, 2009
    malacaynomuerto
    puede que por los significados que tiene este película sea muy importante pero sin ellos también es una cinta estupenda con grandes actuaciones y toda una reflexión sobre la delación
  • binky013
    January 7, 2009
    binky013
    Shouldn't everybody care about everybody else?

    When that philosophy comes up against the "I only care about me" philosophy, and especially if love's involved, you know something has gotta give. Not my all-time favorite Brando, but it's hard to knock the greatness of this mo

    ...( read more)vie.

    Possibly Lee J. Cobb's most memorable role. Rod Steiger is excellent in this.
  • BluesLover
    December 18, 2008
    BluesLover
    Wonderful movie, brando did a great job just like on the Godfather
  • fluffystenseiga
    December 14, 2008
    fluffystenseiga
    "I coulda been a contendah! Instead of a bum, which is what I am."
  • Davidc
    December 9, 2008
    Davidc
    Marlon Brando does one of his greatest work in this picture and the chemistry betweeen him and eva saint marie is amzing, Kazans directing is brought the movie to life and Lee J Cobb plays a great villan. the story is amazign and only someone liek Brando could protray a character...( read more) like this
  • luiser2gh
    December 4, 2008
    luiser2gh
    Another larger than life performance from Marlon Brando...
  • Ivan6655321
    December 2, 2008
    Ivan6655321
    Marlon Brando is one of the best actors of all time, and here in Elia Kazan's masterpiece "On the Waterfront", he showed us why he is hailed as one. Forget Godfather, put aside streetcar, move away last tango, this is Brando's ULTIMATE performance. I heard a lot about the "I coul...( read more)da been a contenda" speech, and I thought at first that the line was vastly overrated and I thought that any actor could have done it, but when I saw Brando delivered the immortal lines, it is the end of my skepticism. The mixed emotions in that particular scene adds power to the lines, it is hard to imagine any actor delivering the speech, even great actors like Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino does not come to my imagination delivering those dialogues. The scenes were crafted perfectly, raw and simply powerful, and in the end, one cannot help but praise Elia Kazan's staggering masterwork. This is an important film to watch, and it just not concern film history, but it is also significant on a moral level.
  • MovieGeek212
    November 25, 2008
    MovieGeek212
    A really orginal and creative piece of work...Marlon plays a contender for the mob that controls the docks of a sea town, then when Marlon's character is involed with the death of a local good guy.. he starts falling for the guy's younger sister meanwhile Marlon is stuck between ...( read more)the life of crime or with the other side..."Ive coulda been a contender"
  • bandeapartduo
    November 23, 2008
    bandeapartduo
    tek kelimeyle harika.
  • nickg329
    November 19, 2008
    nickg329
    Really inspiring film and great performances from Brando and Eva Marie Saint.
  • spencerstilwell
    October 23, 2008
    spencerstilwell
    Classic? Sure. My style? Nah.
  • munro82
    October 10, 2008
    munro82
    Hollywood's traditional glossy veneer is stripped away, by director Elia Kazan, to reveal a bleak and gritty drama, surging with an intensity that brings the harsh reality of life "On the Waterfront" into sharp focus.

    The camera sits perched on the rooftops, surveying all before...( read more) it, the stark black and white photography casting a critical eye over the unrefined landscapes and crude décor of the New Jersey docks.

    The striking austerity of each frame is contravened by the rich tones of everyday life; the mechanical drone, emanating from the docks, infringes upon many scenes, contributing to a tangible atmosphere indicative of the seedy and impoverished lifestyle.

    Underworld infiltration has torn through the fabric of the community's fragile existence, condemning them to a moral wilderness where Johnny Friendly flourishes, feeding off their fear and desperation.

    Lee J. Cobb consumes the screen with a suitably boisterous performance as the mob boss, chewing on every line of dialogue and spitting out venomous barbs, as he rules over the docks through intimidation and ruthless violence.

    Marlon Brando is on Oscar winning form as Cobb's blunt weapon, Terry Malloy. He delivers a nuanced performance that conveys a misguided and conflicted soul, imprisoned in a cage constructed from his own insecurity and loyalty to his brother, Rod Steiger.

    However, the luminous Eva Marie Saint is the fragile figure of his salvation, carrying forth a voice of love and kindness that opens his eyes to the sea of corruption washing over his livelihood. Her purity and faith stir his conscience, inspiring the virtuoso Brando to stand with his brethren against the malignant decadence that has infected his neighbourhood.

    Karl Malden is equally brilliant as the local priest, who preaches morality and justice, but also incites the passion with which it must be earned. He infuses power into Saint's ideals and is the catalyst for this riveting story that builds to a memorable finale.
  • kingmannie
    October 9, 2008
    kingmannie
    Magnetic film with one of the best actors of all time in his prime.
  • LammJamORama
    October 8, 2008
    LammJamORama
    I knew Brando was an amazing actor, and this adds to my knowledge. I wasn't particularly interested in this and didn't know it was really about the mob (I thought it was about fighting, since all you hear about it is Brando's "contender" speech). I almost fell asleep twice since ...( read more)a lot of the scenes were talking, and I thought there was going to be more action. You can't alway get what you expect, though. Not bad overall.
  • wieland007
    September 17, 2008
    wieland007
    Great film with a great Marlon Brando and also a very good performance by actress Eva Marie Saint. In this film, the pressure not to "rat" on your "friends" is beautifully shown and it also captures perfectly the strength of the mob, which is poverty.
  • villainforhire
    September 16, 2008
    villainforhire
    finally saw this after all these years. it is indeed wonderful. brando has never been better and steiger is damn near perfect. leonard bernstein's score is masterful.
  • 76Majikat
    September 10, 2008
    76Majikat
    I think my expectations were set a little high for this, from the recommendations and comments I?d received from others. For that reason, I was a little disappointed, with this old classic.

    Still an enjoyable film, but don?t think it quite reaches the pedestal it?s been put on.
  • itbegins2005
    September 1, 2008
    itbegins2005
    There are two kinds of really, really good movies: the kind that are made so by the director, and the kind that are made so by the performances. This is unequivocally the latter. Not that its direction is without merit- of course the movie wouldn't work if there were an incompete...( read more)nt behind the lens- but unlike, say, Alfred Hitchcock, the thing that Elia Kazan is known for is being an actor's director, a guy who can coax the best work possible out of even the most brilliant- or difficult- actors (both categories which unquestionably include the film's star, Marlon Brando). And here, Kazan is front-loaded with talent, all of them newly-minted Method actors who could bring genuine emotion and drama to the events on-screen- a radical departure from the stilted melodramatics employed in cinema (for the most part) beforehand. Add to this a fantastic screenplay by Bud Schulberg and a jazzy, sinister score by Leonard Bernstein, and you get one of the genuine classics of American cinema, a film that stands up to repeated viewings and still packs a punch every time you see it. Based on a series of articles about crime on the New York waterfront in the late 1940's, the film concerns Terry Malloy, a dock worker and former prize-fighter whose relationship to brother Charlie "the Gent" Malloy, an officer in the corrupt dock worker's union run by a thug named Johnny Friendly, ensures him steady, easy work at the shipyard. When Terry unknowingly sets up another young man to be killed before he can testify to the Waterfront Commission, however, his conscience begins to nag at him, especially once he begins seeing- and falling for- the dead man's sister, Edie. Her dedication to finding the men who killed her brother, coupled with the efforts of a Catholic minister who vainly tries to rouse the dockworkers from their ingrained policy of being D&D (deaf and dumb) to the wrongdoings on the docks, forces Terry to take a hard look at his life and his friends, and finally he decides to do the right thing- even if it means losing the respect of everyone he knows. Headlining the film, of course, is Marlon Brando, hot off his success from Kazan's film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, as conflicted protagonist Terry Malloy, a decent guy who just happens to be friends with the wrong people. Malloy is ultimately trying to do what he feels is the right thing, but in the world he lives in, it's more honorable not to rat out your "friends" than it is to turn a criminal over to the justice system, and it's only when he sees the depth of the corruption on the Waterfront (to the point where his own brother threatens to shoot him) that he starts to get his priorities in order. Brando's naturalistic performance creates a lot of weird little moments of mundane realism (his fidgeting with Edie's glove being one of the most renowned examples) which really serve to ground the film and the character; Malloy is a believable average joe whose actions and mannerisms don't always have concise objectives, and who kind of muddles his words a little bit when he's talking (save during his big speech at the start of act three- you know the one I'm talking about). Playing opposite him is Eva Marie Saint, in her first film role, as Edie Doyle, the sister of the murdered dockworker and the loudest voice of conscience for Terry. Edie, having lived a sheltered life in a private Catholic school, is an innocent, naive girl who is shocked to see just how poor the conditions are at the docks, and is confounded by the workers' refusal to step forward and tell the truth about them. Her decent, straightforward nature intrigues Terry (who believes that everyone has an angle), but her continued attempts to find those responsible for her brother's death are torturous for him. Saint, also being a Method actor, brings a lot of pathos to the young woman, whose desperation and grief are far more believable than you might expect. As for the villain of the story, union leader Johnny Friendly, he's played by none other that Lee J. Cobb, the biggest A-hole-character actor in black and white pictures (just look at 12 Angry Men). Friendly is sort of an uncle figure to Terry, having known him since he was a kid and treated him well enough... but he's also exploitative, demeaning, and violent, traits that Terry can see but chooses to ignore on the basis of their "friendship". Ordering the death of Terry when the merest possibility of him snitching comes to light, the ironically-named Friendly is shown to be cold, ruthless, and motivated solely by greed (of course, his most prominent bit of dialogue is the word, "Gimme!")- basically, a standard cinema bad guy (albeit a great one), no gray areas here. The gray areas come in with Terry's brother Charlie, played by Rod Steiger. Charlie, in some ways, is just as greedy and manipulative as Friendly, but at the same time, he actually cares about his brother, and sees himself as taking care of his brother. Steiger plays the character as street wise (for the time) and somewhat condescending to Terry, and his conflicted loyalties between his brother and his outfit come to a head in a certain famous scene in the back of a taxicab (a scene which he doesn't get much credit for being in, incidentally). The script is very keen, making some good use of symbolism (the dead man's jacket, in particular) and building up sharp characterizations for the actors to work with (this is, after all, very much a character piece). The lighting is very dramatic with its use of contrasts- heavy shadow and bright lights, very film noir; Kazan lays out some really great shot compositions, such as the static camera shot at the mouth of the alley as Terry and Edie are chased down by a truck, or the lolling P.O.V. shot at the end as Terry walks to the dock entrance (and really, who was doing P.O.V. back in the fifties?). The score by Leonard Bernstein is brassy and jazzy, kinda like something from a nightclub, setting an interesting dark, urban tone for the film. As a whole, On the Waterfront is a great morality tale, featuring deftly rendered characters brought to life by some of the best of Hollywood's performers from the time. Brando gets all the credit, sure, but if he hadn't been surrounded by a fantastic set of actors- Saint, Cobb, Steiger, and Karl Malden, just to name a few of the many- and directed by such a skillful filmmaker, the movie couldn't possibly have been the classic that it ended up becoming. One of the best, without a doubt.
  • lucasaq
    September 1, 2008
    lucasaq
    In short strong film with almost all around great acting, but it is held back by a lackluster romance which is overshadowed by brilliant story of brotherly love. Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando are the glue of the film.
  • caesarthegame
    August 29, 2008
    caesarthegame
    Look into the daily life of dock workers on the waterfront and the corruption that surrounds them. One man struggles between his conscience and his well being to decide whether to take a stand or fall in with the rest. Sublime performance for Brando and Cobb. The look of shame, d...( read more)oubt, lust, pride and sorrow all flash across the face of Terry Malloy throughtout the movie.
  • Ghw12158
    August 29, 2008
    Ghw12158
    one of Brando's best

Summary

On the Waterfront Summary