A Crackling Drama with a HUAC Backdrop
Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront wastes no time in setting up the story of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a Hoboken longshoreman who plays an unwitting role in the murder of a fellow dock worker willing to testify against the mob bosses who run their union. Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg have crafted a tale that's intriguing, but it's Brando and his co-stars' raw performances that give the film most of its magnetic power. The rest of its allure comes from viewing the film with its meta-text in mind, namely Kazan's 1952 testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in which he named former Communist party members in Hollywood. The film focuses on the pressures Terry faces, both internal and external, to similarly testify against union leader Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) and, by association, his own brother Charley (Rod Steiger).
It's doubtful anyone today would approve of Kazan's decision to name names for HUAC—though he claims to have felt pressure to do so—and as On the Waterfront (which was released to acclaim in 1954) stands as a sort of reaction to that move, it makes rooting for Terry more complex than it would for the average film. Taken on the merits of its story alone, On the Waterfront works well by showing Terry to be a good guy caught in the middle of a bad situation who confronts a corrupt system. It doesn't even go so far as to make Terry a clean hero, first by implicating him in a murder plot and then introducing his ties to Johnny through Charley, not to mention a flirtation with the dead man's sister (Eva Marie Saint). Karl Malden's Father Barry and Edie, the sister, are the only characters presented as truly righteous and unwaveringly brave, as even some of Malloy's fellow longshoreman willing to cross Friendly don't take to the idea easily without coaching.
Viewing On the Waterfront through the lens of its creator, the story looks like Kazan's version of what he faced in Hollywood when confronting the notion of naming names (it should be noted he first refused to do so, but then relented, and that he was a member of the Communist party briefly in the 1930s). In this case the righteous priest encouraging the workers to stand up to their corrupt union leaders becomes 1950s conservatives pushing for information on former members of the Communist party. It doesn't take much to see that these value systems are not equivalent, especially in retrospect, as today Terry Malloy looks like a blue collar hero and Elia Kazan an ally of a witch hunt.
Although his testimony is a troubling episode in his career to say the least, I won't pretend to know everything that motivated Kazan to testify as he did, and On the Waterfront cannot be definitively classified as a calculated reaction by Kazan to his critics. The director no doubt found a story that resonated with him, and regardless of why that was, his total mastery of his craft resulted in a drama as relevant now as it was 62 years ago.
Kazan and cinematographer Boris Kaufman capture the Hoboken waterfront and cityscape with a grit that won't let you forget the film was shot on location rather than with a myriad of facades and sets, yet the visuals hardly lack style. The oft-present fog, shadows, and grime of the city are beautifully photographed, and though the film was made well into the Technicolor era, its story of moral gray areas would lose a good deal of its visual power were it not presented in black and white.
Brando plays Malloy perfectly in that indecisive, torn area. He's a big lug with a soft side, and Brando strikes the right balance between the two, aided by a script that doesn't undercut either part of his personality with trite choices for his character. Malden manages to make Fr. Barry both holier than thou and a common man with conviction, which allows him to speechify about what's right without ever sounding out of touch or unsympathetic to the men he's trying to help. Saint made her film debut in On the Waterfront, and it's a testament to her abilities as an actress that she holds her own against Marlon Brando right out of the gate. She imbues Edie with great strength beneath an appearance that makes one expect timidity. Steiger, short of the scene in which Brando makes his famous "contender" speech, doesn't make nearly as much of an impression as his co-stars, but he does share a great deal of his screen time with a snarling Cobb, who steals scenes by making Johnny Friendly a sheer force of nature.
On the Waterfront is rich with stories and ideas regardless of the angle from which you approach it. To those interested in the meta-commentary, there's a lengthy discussion to be had about Kazan's relationship with Hollywood in the early 1950s, and for everyone else there's a sharp drama that's as powerful as its melancholy, thumping Leonard Bernstein score. Questions can be raised about Elia Kazan's politics, but he knows how to make a great movie.