On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront, American dramatic film, released in 1954, that presented a powerful account of union corruption and was directed by Elia Kazan. The movie, which featured one of Marlon Brando’s most memorable performances, was a critical and popular success, winning eight Academy Awards, including that for best picture.

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

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As the movie begins, Terry Malloy (played by Brando), a former boxer turned dockworker, leaves the waterfront office of union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) with instructions to lure another longshoreman, Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), to the roof of Joey’s apartment building. Joey, who was planning to testify before the Waterfront Crime Commission, is later thrown from the roof by Friendly’s henchmen. A shocked Terry says that he thought that Joey would be talked to, not killed. A crowd gathers around Joey’s body. His father, Pop Doyle (John Hamilton), says that he told Joey not to talk. Joey’s distraught sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), wants to know who killed him. Father Barry (Karl Malden) administers last rites.

The next morning, Terry attends to his pigeons at his rooftop dovecote before heading to the docks. At the waterfront, Pop Doyle gives Joey’s jacket to Kayo Dugan (Pat Henning). Terry is later approached by two men from the crime commission, Glover (Leif Erickson) and Gillette (Martin Balsam), who ask about Joey’s death. Terry claims not to know anything. Father Barry is also at the docks, and after observing the unfair distribution of work assignments, he suggests that those who dislike the system meet at his church. At the request of his brother, Charley (Rod Steiger), who is Friendly’s lawyer and right-hand man, Terry attends the gathering. There Father Barry urges the assembled dockworkers to stand up to Friendly, but the meeting ends when Friendly’s henchmen attack the church. Terry leads Edie to safety, and Kayo then promises Father Barry that he will testify.

That evening, Edie and Terry meet at Joey’s dovecote, and he takes her to a local bar. He later reports to Friendly that nothing happened at the meeting, but Friendly informs him that Kayo gave a deposition to the crime commission. The next day at the docks, a crate of whiskey is dropped onto Kayo, killing him. Edie and Terry subsequently grow closer, and Edie gives him her brother’s jacket. However, when Terry finally confesses to his role in her brother’s murder, an upset Edie leaves him. Becoming worried about Terry’s loyalty, Friendly orders Charley to make sure that Terry does not cooperate with the crime commission. Charley offers Terry a good job in return for his silence, but Terry’s indecision leads Charley to pull out a gun, which Terry pushes away. Charley then brings up Terry’s boxing career, and Terry accuses Charley of having destroyed his chances by insisting that he throw fights. In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Terry says, “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum.” A guilty Charley then gives Terry the gun for his protection, and Terry goes to reconcile with Edie. After the couple narrowly escapes being killed by a truck, Terry discovers his brother’s body hanging from a hook in an alley.

Terry sets out to kill Friendly, but Father Barry convinces him to instead testify against him. The following day, Terry goes before the crime commission and tells all. When he returns home, he finds that all of his pigeons have been killed. The next day at the docks, Terry challenges Friendly. A fistfight ensues, and Friendly’s henchmen beat up Terry. Afterward, as Edie and Father Barry attend to Terry, the dockworkers declare their allegiance to Terry, who manages to rise to his feet and walk through the work gate, with the workers following him. Pop Doyle shoves Friendly off the dock into the water.

Writer Budd Schulberg based the story and screenplay on a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles that appeared in 1948 in the New York Sun, “Crime on the Waterfront,” by Malcolm Johnson, about corruption in the longshoremen’s union. Both Schulberg and Kazan had cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee in its attempt to ferret out people in the film industry who held communist sympathies. On the Waterfront was often interpreted as a metaphorical rationalization of their decision to name names. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989.

Production notes and credits

• Studios: Columbia Pictures Corporation and Horizon Pictures
• Director: Elia Kazan
• Writer: Budd Schulberg
• Music: Leonard Bernstein
• Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Cast

• Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy)
• Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly)
• Karl Malden (Father Barry)
• Rod Steiger (Charley Malloy)
• Eva Marie Saint (Edie Doyle)

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)

• Lead actor* (Marlon Brando)
• Supporting actor (Lee J. Cobb)
• Supporting actor (Karl Malden)
• Supporting actor (Rod Steiger)
• Supporting actress* (Eva Marie Saint)
• Art direction (black-and-white)*
• Cinematography (black-and-white)*
• Direction*
• Editing*
• Music
• Writing*