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

#2- The Godfather (1972) review

Hailed by many as the greatest film to ever grace the big screen, it can usually be hard to agree with such statement when hundreds of ground breaking films have also been released but in this case, when the Godfather Part I is considered the greatest of all time, I without hesitation, will agree!

Focusing around the Corleone Family, the story’s essential focus is that of their youngest son, Michael Corleone, a World War II patriotic veteran who has returned home just in time for his sister’s wedding. The film depicts the fall and rise to power of Michael Corleone as well as various other family businesses movements.

The greatest strength of the film, which is extremely tough to pick one when everything about this movie is flawless and perfection, but the greatest aspect of the film is the acting. Marlon Brando’s performance of Vito Corleone is what I believe one of the all time greatest performances ever. It is chilling, calming, intense but completely believable. If I were to ever have a godfather, I would imagine him as Brando’s Vito. He embodies that, he is the Godfather! You remember the poster to Forrest Gump that says “TOM HANKS….IS FORREST GUMP”, in this case it should most certainly say ‘MARLON BRANDO IS THE GODFATHER” He is the scene stealer of the film, he owns the film, he motivates the film and he is simply the driving force of the film. 

However, the supporting cast is unbelievable. Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, adopted son of the family and lawyer, Duvall is fantastic in his role and is welcome! His character is also superbly done. James Caan as the oldest brother, Sonny, is unbelievable and believe me, right up there with Al Pacino’s performance in this film. It’s a truly remarkable performance, that everything I see him, I’m left with the biggest of smiles on my face! Caan and Brando are the ones that are sorely missed in The Godfather Part II. Diane Keaton is great in her role, despite heavy criticism towards her performance. It  isn’t most definitely the greatest she could give but it is a believable performance. However, what would acting be without a strong performance by our lead star: Al Pacino. Despite not being the scene stealer, it is mainly Michael’s story and Al Pacino is the only man to possibly play Michael. He is innocent when he needs to be, caring and lovable and simply, the one character you wouldn’t want to fall into the family business but when he does, it is one of the greatest performances ever. Like Brando, it is extremely relaxed yet extremely intimidating.

The acting is flawless, the direction taken by Francis Ford Coppola is only described by the word ‘flawless’ and that’s what every aspect of the film is. The writing is superb and obviously helps from incredibly strong source material by Mario Puzo and the amazing cinematography is just gorgeous to look at. Every scene is filmed in the most gorgeous of ways even though it does not seem like they try to do so. That’s what good filming does! Gorgeously filmed and executed, along with strong writing, The Godfather is still flawless.

When you have a three hour epic like The Godfather, the pacing to the film must be strong and that’s exactly what this film is. It is paced unbelievably well. For a three hour film, a lot of important events happen such as the death of a character. Francis Ford Coppola shows his mastery here by leaving a clear indication to how it affects Michael but has the brain to not have any further discussions about this, therefore not wasting any time unnecessarily. Whilst this may be considered too packed, believe it or not, it isn’t. There isn’t one moment that feels too slow nor too packed. The dialogue is downright amazing, the music is legendary. One of the most iconic soundtracks ever to grace the screen, everything it plays throughout this film, I fall in love with it. Whereas Part II uses it, it doesn’t have the effect that the score has on this film.

The Godfather is packed with many iconic scenes and dialogue. Dialogue from ‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’ to ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’ to ‘It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes!” are the definition of iconic dialogue. Then, the iconic scenes in this movie do not stop. Unlike Part II, which despite being a masterpiece, offers very little iconic sequences or if they are iconic, aren’t anywhere to the extent of the power in this film. The film is packed with iconic sequences to the horse head, to Luca Brasi, to the Sollozo/McCluskey incident, to Vito being shot, to the baptism, Vito’s talk with Michael, the agreement with the Five Families to the tollbooth sequence. The word iconic graces every minute of the film and that’s no joke!

And that is no joke too! That being said, The Godfather is the definition of a masterpiece and quite possibly, the greatest film ever made. A gorgeously shot movie with masterful directing and writing, to legendary acting and story-telling alongside one of the greatest film scores of all time, The Godfather is the definition of an iconic movie. It’s a legend…Everyone needs to see The Godfather…Or else…Vito Corleone will catch you!  

Grade- 10/10