On The Waterfront

On The Waterfront wasnt as good of movie as Casablanka in my opinion. The movie had some good parts but mostly bad parts. The parts that really stuck out in my mind are from the scenes that have the popular lines, such as: when they are in the back of the car and Terry says to his brother "I coulda been a contender." That scene really seemed to play a guilt trip on Charley because Terry keep saying he could have done something with his life and not just be a bum and how Charley should have been a brother and not told him to throw the fight but to encourage him to do good. Another part that sticks out to me is when they are Terry and Edie have to run down the alley when the truck is chasing them and Terry has to break a window to unlock a door in the nick of time to avoid being hit by the vehical chasing them. Then after that when he finds his brothers body hanging on the hook after being killed by the mofia. The last scene in the movie is a very memorable one also. When Terry finally stands up to Jon Friendly and the epic fight they have where the rest of the Friendlys boys come to help beat up Terry and win the fight only to have the workers refuse to work for him and Terry a bloody mess limps into the building with the rest of the works following him.
The first article I read was 'On the Waterfront (Motion Picture).' This article really seemed to put down the movie implying that it is hightly overrated. It really critized the actors saying that they couldnt play their parts. It says that no one can accept Edia as a college girl taught by nuns and that Terry is just the "ex-boxer whose brains are partly scrambled, but whose pigeon-loving heart stays tenderly intact." They say thay Father Barry is just a rambling priest. The article said that the head of the studio tha tproduced the movie expected it to be a failure, but was far from it winning some Academy Award.
The next article that I read was 'On the Waterfront' the book review one. I really wasnt a fan of this article. It was neat though how Leo visited the sites of where the movie was shot in the late 1960's and said that the "sites and some of the locals who appeared in the film's crowd scenes remained recognizable. The article made it seem that the book really protrayed the movie and was detailed enought to paint a good picture about what was going on.
The last article was Arthurs Miller's Proletariat: The True Stories of On The Waterfront. This article wasnt to bad. There was a lot of information in it. This article claimed that On the Waterfront is very possbily the greatest labor film ever made in America. This article says that the context in On the Waterfront 'are so authentic is seems more a documentary than a dramatic motion picture' which is the complete opposite of the other article when they said the acting was cheesy. They also talk quite abit about 'The Hook' and how it was never produced but had the theme of longshoremen who are harassed by a gangster union along iwth ship owners. This was a good article but I think it delt to much with The Hook rather than with On the Waterfront although the two are shared the common theme.
The movie overall had its ups and downs. I dont think it was the best acting in the world or the best plot but it was still recieved many awards. The music in the movie was way to loud. It something to thing about when they say that Elia Kazan made the movie to help justify his testimony with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Marlon Brando definatly went on to make better movies.