When is come to the big screen there are hundreds of class films and hundred of classic movie stars. However, there are very few of these classic stars that are still heard of and talked about in this day and age. Marlon Brando is one of these very few stars that is till relevant in today's culture. He is best known for playing a big role in The Godfather. That film is on this list but I have not quit gotten there yet. While that is his best known role today does not mean that The Godfather is the only performance worth watching. He is one of those actors that you have to watch him in everything you can and watch the character he plays come to life. That is exactly what he does in the 1954 Best Picture Winner On the Waterfront.
In a time when the mob is breathing down everyone's neck, whether you know it you no, very few dare even to stand up to them. They run everything from the stocks and banks to the drugstore on the corner. One place that is feeling the heat closer than most is Hoboken, New Jersey. One of the best places to get a job is right there on the waterfront loading and unloading the cargo ships that come in. Because the mob is out to make a buck they start to corrupt the mangers of the docks and they let the mob choose who get to work that day and who doesn't. This goes on for months and people start to get really mad that they can't just rely on the docks to provide anymore they also have to rely on the mob. When people start to rat them out the rats starts to die. That is when the fear seeps in and no one will talk anymore. That is until a real good guy by the name of Joey dies at the hands of the mob and his sister, Edie, does not rest until she figures out the truth in her brothers death. In trying to figure out what happened that night she meets a man by the name of Terry. With the connections with the mob, and the fact they are not great connections, Edie and Terry start to tear down the walls of fear against the mob in their neighborhood.
This film was one of the biggest films to come in out 1954. Columbia had a huge hit on their hand when they found that On the Waterfront was nominated to twelve Academy Awards. The film would end up taking home eight awards that night beating out Columbia's own The Caine Mutiny, Paramount's The Country Girl, MGM's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and 20th Century Fox's Three Coins in the Fountain. In addition this film was also selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 1989.
This is one of those films that when you start to get interested in classic films you start to really hear about it. So, when I saw that it won for Best Picture I was really happy that I would get to see what all of the fuss was about. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I think the biggest problem that I had with the film was the character Edie. Now, I am not sure if this film was supposed to show her as a overly dramatic childish character but that is how it ended up being. I really could not stand her. I know that Edie's brother dies and she is supposed to be sad but she stays in this whiny, pointless character in the film that you can mad at because she can not make up her mind. I mean, I get it, most of the time when you have a love interested that comes from "the wrong side of the tracks" the girl goes back and forth between what she wants to do and what is considered right. However, most film have this girl go through those emotions several times through the length of the film not several times in the length of two minutes. I was really bored of her and with Bando being with her 30 seconds after seeing their "love story" start. I really didn't get much into the film until Brando and his character's older brother started to really interact with each other. By the end of the film I really wish they focused a little bit more on the brothers and got rid of Edie's character all together. What makes me mad out of all of this is the fact that Eva Marie Saint, who plays Edie, won for best supporting actress in this role. I didn't think it was even worth a nomination for to be truthful. I have to say by the end of the film it really showed Brando's acting chomps and the he is capable of holding up a film all on his own. I would really watch the film again to study him in the film and totally forget about Saint.
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