On the Waterfront [VHS] (6303402070)

On the Waterfront [VHS]
from Sony Pictures
starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning
directed by Elia Kazan

Features:

• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• NTSC

Editorial Review:

Marlon Brando's famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech is such a warhorse by now that a lot of people probably feel they've seen this picture already, even if they haven't. And many of those who have seen it may have forgotten how flat-out thrilling it is. For all its great dramatic and cinematic qualities, and its fiery social criticism, Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront is also one of the most gripping melodramas of political corruption and individual heroism ever made in the United States, a five-star gut-grabber. Shot on location around the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, it tells the fact-based story of a longshoreman (Brando's Terry Malloy) who is blackballed and savagely beaten for informing against the mobsters who have taken over his union and sold it out to the bosses. (Karl Malden has a more conventional stalwart-hero role, as an idealistic priest who nurtures Terry's pangs of conscience.) Lee J. Cobb, who created the role of Willy Loman in Death of Salesman under Kazan's direction on Broadway, makes a formidable foe as a greedy union leader. --David Chute

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Let down by expectations
  After a recent walk through the world of Kazan, reading T.Williams' plays, plus his memoirs, plus Kazan's memoirs, and then watching some of the Williams movies, not all by Kazan, and some of Kazan's other films, after non-Williams texts, I had, for unclear reasons, postponed watching the Waterfront until now. (Maybe just because nobody in this house wanted to watch it with me. Despite Brando. Which is surprising, as all other inhabitants here are female, in homo sapiens as well as in house cat species.)more info

• Walk like a man
  This is a movie about pidgins, both literally and figuratively. Local priest (Karl Malden) goes up against cabal.
  This might be entertainment for some and was a type of movie art that came and passed. This presentation is a good variant of the genre. People that enjoy "Citizen Kane" will enjoy this film. The acting is touted as great, however everyone acted the same as it is a 1954 style; if it is so good out of its time and place there would be movies like this today. I suggest that a better variant... more info

• Being A Contender
  Marlon Brando starred in one of his least pretentious roles in this film about a dock worker in NYC who decides to fight the corrupt officials who run the docks. Eva Marie Saint plays the young woman whose brother is murdered by them. Of course, Marlon who had something to do with the brother's murder, and Eva Marie fall in love but Karl Malden as the priest keeps it on a higher plane. The moral struggle against corrupt gangs who intimidate and murder to influence the community and the struggle to live a... more info

• "D and D. Deaf and Dumb"
  On the Waterfront (Special Edition)
  On The Waterfront
  Elia Kazan's classic 1954 film "On The Waterfront" isn't just great drama; it's serious social commentary as well. Based on the book by Budd Schulberg, "On the Waterfront" is the story of ex prize fighter Terry Molloy. Terry, who famously claims "I coulda been a contender," has lost a few brain cells along the way, and now hangs out on the wharf where his brother Charley The Gent (Rod Steiger) looks out for him in Johnny Friendly's (Lee J.... more info

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