On the Waterfront

UPC: 043396784093

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children]

Summary: This classic story of Mob informers was based on a number of true stories and filmed on location in and around the docks of New York and New Jersey. Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) rules the waterfront with an iron fist. The police know that he's been responsible for a number of murders, but witnesses play deaf and dumb ("plead D & D"). Washed-up boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) has had an errand-boy job because of the influence of his brother Charley, a crooked union lawyer (Rod Steiger). Witnessing one of Friendly's rub-outs, Terry is willing to keep his mouth shut until he meets the dead dockworker's sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint). "Waterfront priest" Father Barry (Karl Malden) tells Terry that Edie's brother was killed because he was going to testify against boss Friendly before the crime commission. Because he could have intervened, but didn't, Terry feels somewhat responsible for the death. When Father Barry receives a beating from Friendly's goons, Terry is persuaded to cooperate with the commission. Featuring Brando's famous "I coulda been a contendah" speech, On the Waterfront has often been seen as an allegory of "naming names" against suspected Communists during the anti-Communist investigations of the 1950s. Director Elia Kazan famously informed on suspected Communists before a government committee -- unlike many of his colleagues, some of whom went to prison for refusing to "name names" and many more of whom were blacklisted from working in the film industry for many years to come -- and Budd Schulberg's screenplay has often been read as an elaborate defense of the informer's position. On the Waterfront won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Brando, and Best Supporting Actress for Saint. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Director – null Best Cinematography - Black and White – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Story and Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Drama or Comedy Score – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Silver Lion – Venice International Film Festival Best Picture – New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography - Black and White – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Directors Guild of America

Features: Digitally mastered audio & video
Full-screen presentation
Audio: English [mono], French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai
Exclusive featurette
Video photo gallery
Elia Kazan Interview
Audio commentary with film critic/author Richard Schickel and Elia Kazan biographer Jeff Young
Theatrical trailers
Filmographies
Animated menus
Production notes
Scene selections

On the Waterfront

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 10/23/2001

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 107 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,Spanish,French,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
0. Scene Selections
1. Start [1:26]
2. Returning Danny Boy [1:34]
3. "Someone Fell off the Roof." [2:57]
4. Johnny Friendly [7:23]
5. Waterfront Commission Mugs [5:01]
6. How Trigger Locals Work [1:40]
7. Designated Stoolie [4:01]
8. Meeting Adjourned [1:59]
9. Getting Acquainted [4:51]
10. The Lowdown on Terry [2:20]
11. Up on the Roof [4:15]
12. A Neighborhood Saloon [5:32]
13. Wedding Party [4:54]
14. Friendly Warning [2:29]
15. Dropping a Sling on Dugan [1:54]
16. A Promise Kept [5:00]
17. Terry & Father Barry [1:29]
18. Telling Edie the Truth [3:50]
19. Talk of Past Favors [:50]
20. "I Coulda Been A Contender." [6:47]
21. At Edie's [5:51]
22. "Charley's in Trouble" [1:58]
23. Waiting for Big John [1:31]
24. Crime Commission Hearing [2:18]
25. A Pigeon for a Pigeon [4:33]
26. "You're a Cheap Mug!" [5:22]
27. Labor vs. Union [6:06]
28. Finishing What He Started [1:44]

Bruce Eder

Arguably the best movie ever released by Columbia Pictures and among the finest movies ever made in America, On the Waterfront's reputation has only grown across the half-century since its release. Based on a series of articles about corruption on the New York/New Jersey docks, with a story and screenplay by Budd Schulberg (who also wrote a novel, Waterfront, to tell the story without the compromises necessary for the screenplay), the movie -- directed by Elia Kazan -- retains the feel of truth from the first frame to the last, down to the smallest nuances of the supporting players. Longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a washed-up ex-boxer who is a part-time stooge for corrupt union president Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), who also employs Terry's older, college educated brother Charley (Rod Steiger). As a favor to Johnny, Terry lures a fellow dockworker, Joey Doyle, to the roof of his building -- and Joey is thrown off the roof. All of the men who knew him plead "D & D" (deaf-and-dumb) about who killed him or why, but they all know that Joey was going to answer questions before the Waterfront Crime Commission investigating racketeering on the docks, and that it was Johnny Friendly who had him killed. But Terry can't walk away from Joey's death that easily -- he genuinely thought they were just going to lean on him a little, not kill him, and he can't forget that he set Joey up. Terry's conscience bothers him just enough so that when he meets Joey's grieving sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), and sees Father Barry (Karl Malden), the local priest, trying to find out who killed Joey, they stir some long-buried streak of decency in him. At the same time, although he's not the brightest bead on the rosary (and this is a very Catholic movie, in its imagery and sensibilities), Terry slowly becomes aware that he can tie Johnny Friendly directly to the killing. Johnny starts to doubt Terry and his willingness to keep quiet; Terry and Edie are seen together too often, and they are falling in love with each other, albeit very reluctantly -- even Terry's brother Charley can't reach him anymore. When another longshoreman, Kayo Dugan (Pat Henning), agrees to testify and is murdered, Terry is the next in line for the investigators (Leif Erickson, Martin Balsam). Terry turns out not only to have a conscience but some dignity and self-worth. In the renowned taxi-ride scene with his brother (considered possibly the best dramatic scene between two actors in the whole history of movies), he recounts how Charley never looked out for him when Charley and Johnny handled him as a boxer and made him throw his most important fights -- he's not dead, but he's barely a shadow of who and what he might've been. By this time, the middle ground Terry is standing on is shrinking down to a point -- with a piercing edge -- and he (who is worrying only about himself) has to decide which way he's going to jump off. When Charley is murdered, he makes his decision, precipitating an explosion of pent-up fury on the docks that threatens to destroy both Terry and Johnny. The acting in On the Waterfront has the aura of truth, and the decision to shoot on location in northern New Jersey gave the film the immediacy and realism of a documentary. Into that mix goes Leonard Bernstein's music (his only film score), which anticipates elements of West Side Story and, in its editing and mixing into the audio track, imparts a very subtle operatic quality to the otherwise hyper-realistic film. Just check out the interaction of the visuals and the music in the scene depicting the fight at the morning shape-up, especially the build up to the horn flourish at the moment when Terry's friend points out that he's fighting with Joey Doyle's sister. The film is an extraordinary mix of elements both coarse and refined -- harsh realism and art at its most quietly elegant -- in a coherent and compelling whole that still holds up a half century later. On the Waterfront won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Saint, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Rebecca Sands  Actor 
Nehemiah Persoff  Actor 
Tami Mauriello  Actor 
Pat Hingle  Actor 
Leonard Bernstein  Composer (Music Score) 
Elia Kazan  Director 
Sam Spiegel  Producer 
Budd Schulberg  Screenwriter 
Marlon Brando  Actor 
Karl Malden  Actor 
Lee J. Cobb  Actor 
Rod Steiger  Actor 
Pat Henning  Actor 
Martin Balsam  Actor 
Eva Marie Saint  Actor 
James Westerfield  Actor 
Tony Galento  Actor 
Leif Erickson  Actor 
John Hamilton  Actor 
John Heldabrand  Actor 
Rudy Bond  Actor 
Don Blackman  Actor 
Arthur Keegan  Actor 
Abe Simon  Actor 
Barry Macollum  Actor 
Mike O'Dowd  Actor 
Fred Gwynne  Actor 
Anne Hegira  Actor 

Country: USA