Churning Water. Review on On the Waterfront Movie

On The Waterfront in this newly re-mastered print on this DVD is exceptional as a slice of historical material that is a towering performance platform.

Marlon Brando, Eve Marie Saint, Karl Malden, and also director Elia Kazan all shine here.

The story feels like something from Dead End Kids: Washed up palooka Terry Malloy (Marlin Brando) is a bum who runs errands for union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee. J. Cobb) on the gang-ridden docks of Hoboken. When Terry unwittingly lures a rebellious worker, Joey Doyle, to his death, he is guilt-stricken and begins to sense some presence of a conscience in himself. Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the dead man's sister, determined to find the killer of her brother Joey is attracted to Terry. A romance begins; fueled by Terry's need to open up to clear his conscience and Edie's needs for a masculine figure in her life. Confronted by Farther Barry (Karl Malden), Terry realizes that he must tell Edie what he knows about her brother's death. When his crooked brother Charley the Gent (Rod Steiger) is murdered for refusing to kill him, Terry testifies in court against Johnny Friendly and the union that is strangling the working class that relies on the Hoboken harbor for their livelihood. When Terry is shunned on the docks for his actions in court he decides to show the other workers how to fight back at the corrupt leaders dominating their lives. He physically fights Johnny Friendly and the other bosses and is beaten, but through his standing up, the other workers stand firm and allow Terry to lead them to a self-respecting life.

The DVD contains great features:

• Subtitles in European languages and also in Chinese, Korean, and Thai

  
  




• Elia Kazan Interview

  
  




• Exclusive Featurette

  
  




• Audio commentary with film critic Richard Schickel, and Biographer Jeff Young

  
  




• Filmographries

  
  




• Production Notes

  
  

The featurette alone will fill an evening of viewing. The film has been digitally re-mastered in full screen presentation, and exhibits a wonderful range of light and dark that should make the most assiduous-minded cinematographer salivate.

The film itself is a masterpiece from nearly every perspective. There is the excellent acting from Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, all trained at the Actors Studio, and there is the whole host of support players who came through the school as well.

The entire film is a method actors smorgasbord, with direction by Elia Kazan, possibly more rooted in the method than the cast. Kazan, a former actor and one of the original members of the Group Theatre, proves himself as the actors director.

The Leonard Berstein music soundtrack is astounding; adding fill to scenes to support the action and at times seeming to leading the very emotional core of other scenes. The music is a hybrid of jazz, jungle drums, symphonic strings, and rhythmic trumpet, and has the power to get the pulse pumping on its own.

Some moments seem stagy today by comparison, like the scene in the ship hold when Carl Malden delivers his ''crucifixion'' speech, but the composition allows the actors to showcase their talents and emotional presentation.

Outstanding scenes are aplenty. There is the cab scene with Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando, so original in its eclecticism yet so much a part of the fabric of human nature.

The film is a polemic on the dangers of labor unions, and those in power. Based on actual reported events by Malcolm Johnson on activities at the Hoboken Shipping Docks, ''On The Waterfront'' was written by Budd Schulberg, and developed by Elia Kazan to show the humanity behind the anonymous face of the working class.

The performances of the film are memorable. The included features on the DVD are enlightening adding a rare glimpse of the Director Elia Kazan and the actor Rod Steiger.

One featurette with Rod Steiger talking primarily about cab scene with Marlon Brando has James Lipton from ''Inside the Actors Studio'' fame adding opinion.

It is a great look inside the thoughts and feelings of one of the best method actors from the day with Steiger talking about how the scene almost didn't get made, but was done so slapdash that everyone on the set thought it was just a minor thing.

Hearing Steiger and also Kazan talk about how the scene got made lends real understanding as to how accidental art is some times. Steiger still seems to carry a grudge about some things Brando did that weren't very professional.

The exclusive interview with Elia Kazan is a pleasure, because the director seems to tickled that he is actually being able to talk about the movie, Sam Spiegel the producer, and all the stuff that went into getting the thing made on budget.

The commentary with film critic Richard Schickel, and biographer Jeff Young is educational, if at times, digressing, because they get so involved talking about their knowledge of the film and its creators that they get away from the film itself. The commentary track is very enlightening if you stick with it.

The digitally re-mastered DVD is filled with wonderful chiaroscuro and each scene has such a core of real quality acting technique. You can't get this on ''Survivor'', no matter how hard you look.

The best price I found is half.com for $7 dollars. Grab it watch it, imitate Brando in the bathroom mirror until you have it perfectly (I coulda been a contenda!)!

We're all contenders in the fight to live our lives to perfection and this film is a testament to the struggle to overcome the oppression of the corrupt labor unions over the working class.