On The Waterfront (1954) review

In some ways, it is a shame to think exactly how long it took the legendary Marlon Brando before he won his first Oscar, but realizing that he won it in ‘On The Waterfront’ deeply warms and satisfies anyone’s heart with his legendary performance being praised to death. The film itself, is one of incredible style, showing plenty of talent and skill and leaves an undying message that will live forever, much like this legendary picture has.

Marlon Brando stars as an ex-boxer named Terry Malloy, whose life has turned to misery and misfortune since been conned out of boxing. This is highlighted in his iconic line, “I coulda been a contender…” which has been parodied everywhere since then. It has become such a Hollywood classic that it cements a spot in the top 5 movie quotes of all time, according to the infamous AFI. Terry Malloy blindly takes part in the death of Joey Doyle and is willing to play D & D (deaf and dumb) for his boss, Johnny Friendly, portrayed by the legendary Lee J. Cobb. At this same time, a series of murders and crime ensues as Terry meets and begins a relationship with Joey’s sister, Edie portrayed by Eva Saint Marie in her debut.

Every single performance in this film is incredible whether the obvious Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Eva Saint Marie or even smaller roles such as Rod Steiger. Brando’s performance is quite possibly, the greatest cinema has ever seen rivalled only by his performance 18 years later, in The Godfather. He brings a certain energetic feel to the film, boosting the brilliance of his performance by his speciality, method acting. Had anyone else been cast, no matter how legendary, I fear that they couldn’t bring the certain endearing aspect that Brando does, the confusion, the anger, the disappointment and most importantly, portray the innocence of his character. Brando excels at each aspects of this film. He is not alone in terms of fantastic performances.

Lee J Cobb plays Terry’s boss, Johnny Friendly and portrays him with brilliance. He brings yet again, a rather endearing personality to it and later unleashes with an intense, dirty and evil performance. The scene towards the end of the film, where he begins pounding Terry is vicious and completely believable not only from Brando’s side but from Cobb’s side. He certainly has a way with playing bad guys!

Karl Malden is terrific as the priest in this film and it is his second film with Brando, the other being ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ He is once more, fantastic as a supporting character knocking some sense into the kid inside Terry. The scene where he objects to Terry’s desperate need for murder was just brilliant. Malden brings a certain frustration towards Brando’s character, some heart and most importantly, is evident that he brings some sense into Terry.

Not only do we have the brilliance of Brando, Cobb and Malden but it is mindblowing to think that Eva Saint Marie won herself an Oscar in her film debut as she plays Terry’s love interest, Edie. Whilst her performance may not be up to scrap with the others, it is nevertheless an absolutely fantastic performance especially considering it be her debut. The brilliant thing about ‘On The Waterfront’ is that it becomes so easy to get lost with the fact that there are actors acting out parts of this film due to how realistic and how grabbing the performances are.

The story is an extremely touching one, full of emotion and a realistic take on crime. The film itself is an extremely inspiring and positive one sending the undying message that even the average “bum” like Terry can do good like he does by the end of the film. It realistically presents what life can be like and the addition of the two kids who are often shown present with Terry are just brilliant, resembling the innocence of the kid within Terry.

At 100 minutes, the film is flawlessly written, directed and paced and keeps a certain intensity all throughout. The cinematography in this film is gorgeous and all themes tackled in this film provide us with hope in life, especially for those who are often discriminated due to various reasons. ‘On the Waterfront’ is simply a movie that can knock some sense and hope into anyone and it does after all, feature one of the all time greatest performances! 

Grade- 10/10