On the Waterfront
Directed by	Elia Kazan
Produced by	Sam Spiegel
Written by	Budd Schulberg
Starring	Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 28, 1954 (USA)
Running time	108 min
Language	English
Budget	$910,000 USD (estimated)
IMDb profile

On the Waterfront is an Oscar-winning American 1954 film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen, and it has become a standard of its kind. The film was written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan; it stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. The film deals with social issues, such as poverty and homelessness, which paralleled the emerging organization of labor. It was based on a series of articles written in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson. On the Waterfront may refer to: On the Waterfront (festival), a Labor Day weekend music festival in Rockford, Illinois On the Waterfront, a 1954 film starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden On the Waterfront (TV Series), a BBC Saturday morning childrens programme Category: ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 390 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (492 × 755 pixel, file size: 64 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a film poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the film or the studio... Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν, IPA: ), (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. ... Sam Spiegel (11 November 1901 - 31 December 1985) was a successful independent film producer. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ... Marlon Brando, Jr. ... Karl Malden (born on March 22, 1912) is an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, known for his expansive manner. ... Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976) was an American actor. ... Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago. ... The Columbia Pictures logo from 1993 to the present Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. ... is the 209th day of the year (210th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The year 1954 in film involved some significant events. ... Stevedores on a New York dock loading barrels of corn syrup onto a barge on the Hudson River. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ... Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν, IPA: ), (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. ... Marlon Brando, Jr. ... Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago. ... Karl Malden (born on March 22, 1912) is an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, known for his expansive manner. ... Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976) was an American actor. ... Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: )[1] (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. ... Front page of the New York Sun, November 26, 1834 For the modern newspaper of the same name, see The New York Sun. ... Malcolm Johnson (September 24, 1904 – June 18, 1976) was a noted investigative journalist of the 1940s and 1950s. ...

Plot

Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a washed-up ex-prizefighter in his late twenties working on the docks for the local gang boss, Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). He feels depressed over his rag-to-riches rise to the top and eventual fall from the ring. The death of an old childhood friend, ordered by Johnny Friendly, fills him with terrible guilt, because he was unwittingly involved in the murder. Marlon Brando, Jr. ... For other senses of these words, see boxing (disambiguation) or boxer (disambiguation). ... Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976) was an American actor. ...

Terry meets the murdered man's sister (Eva Marie Saint), and they begin a relationship. She and a local priest (Karl Malden) try to convince him to work against the mob. But Terry only turns against the mob after Johnny Friendly orders the death of his brother (Rod Steiger), a mobster himself, who had refused to kill Terry after his treachery is discovered. Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Karl Malden (born on March 22, 1912) is an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, known for his expansive manner. ... Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago. ...

Terry testifies publicly and becomes a pariah on the docks but, in the end, triumphs over Johnny Friendly after a dramatic fight with him on the docks that reunifies the workers. Terry then heads back to work with all the workers and makes Johnny Friendly look like a fool in the eyes of them all.

Factual background

On the Waterfront was based on a 24-part series of articles in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson, "Crime on the Waterfront." The series won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. The stories detailed widespread corruption, extortion and racketeering on the waterfront of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The modern New York Sun is a daily newspaper published in New York City. ... Malcolm Johnson (September 24, 1904 – June 18, 1976) was a noted investigative journalist of the 1940s and 1950s. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting is awarded to an example of local reporting that illuminates significant issues or concerns. ...

Brando as Terry Malloy

In On the Waterfront, protagonist Terry Malloy's (Brando's) fight against corruption was in part modeled after whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony DiVincenzo, who testified before a real-life Waterfront Commission on the facts of life on the Hoboken docks and had suffered a degree of ostracism for his deed. DiVincenzo sued and settled, many years after, with Columbia Pictures over the appropriation of what he considered his story. DiVincenzo recounted his story to Schulberg during a month-long session of waterfront barroom meetings—which some claim never occurred—even though Shulberg attended Di Vincenzo's waterfront commission testimony every day during the hearing. Johnny Friendly was based in part on mobster Albert Anastasia, chief executioner of Murder, Inc. as well as Michael Clemente, the International Longshoremen's Association boss. Image File history File links AnnexBrando_On_the_Waterfront)_02. ... Image File history File links AnnexBrando_On_the_Waterfront)_02. ... Albert Anastasia (born Umberto Anastasio) (September 26, 1902–October 25, 1957), also known as the Mad Hatter and Lord High Executioner, was a Mafia boss chiefly remembered for running the contract-killing syndicate known as Murder, Inc. ... Murder, Inc. ...

• see discussion for reference.

Karl Malden's character of Father Barry was based on the real-life "waterfront priest" Father John M. Corridan, a graduate of Regis High School who operated a Roman Catholic labor school on the west side of Manhattan. Father Corridan was extensively interviewed by screenwriter Budd Schulberg, who wrote the foreword to a biography of Father Corridan, "Waterfront Priest" by Allen Raymond. The story was filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey, although it is a fictionalized version of events on the New York waterfront. Reverend Fr. ... Regis High School is an all-scholarship, Jesuit, college preparatory school for young Catholic men. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ...

Political context

In 1952, director Elia Kazan was a "friendly" witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in which he identified many alleged Communists in the film industry. That brought him severe criticism. Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν, IPA: ), (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) (1938–1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. ...

The original screenplay (called "The Hook") was written by renowned playwright Arthur Miller, who was blacklisted as an alleged Communist. He was replaced by Budd Schulberg, also a "friendly" witness before HUAC. [1] Arthur Bob Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ...

On the Waterfront, being about a heroic mob informer, is widely considered to be Kazan's answer to his critics, showing that there could be nobility in a man who "named names". In the movie, variations of that phrase are repeatedly used by Terry Malloy. The film also repeatedly emphasizes the waterfront's code of "D and D" or "Deaf and Dumb," remaining silent at all costs and not "ratting out" one's friends. In the end, Malloy does just that and his doing so is depicted sympathetically.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The finale of Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese is a homage to On the Waterfront.
• The film has been adapted into Hindi as Ghulam.
• In the early draft of the script, Terry Malloy was written as a man in his early to mid forties. Upon casting Brando, Kazan changed him into a younger man in his twenties, so as to emphasize his rise and fall and how fast one man can become famous and lose it all soon afterwards.
• Billy Joel makes a reference to the film in his song "Great Wall of China".
• Lloyd Cole & The Commotions also reference this film in the song "Rattlesnakes".
• The cab scene between Terry and Charlie is one of the most famous in American cinema in which Brando speaks these famous lines, "I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody (instead of a bum)." The scene was not shot in a real cab and, because rear screen projection was not available, the producers placed a Venetian blind in the rear window of the cab set to hide this.
• While shooting the movie, Brando had it written in his contract that he would be allowed to leave the set early everyday to see his therapist.
• When it came to shooting Rod Steiger's lines in the famous cab scene, Marlon Brando was not present because of a therapy appointment. So Steiger had to act opposite a stagehand.
• In Michael Jackson's music video 'You Rock My World', one of the last shots, in which we see Michael kissing his female lead, there is a large billboard in the background with the 'On The Waterfront' movie poster on it.
• Upon the screening of the completed version of 'On The Waterfront', Marlon Brando and its director Elia Kazan sat watching. But before the film could end, Brando walked out. He later confirmed in his book 'Songs My Mother Taught Me' that 'on the day Kazan showed me the completed picture, I was so depressed by my performance that I got up and left the screening room'.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... This article is about the 1980 film. ... Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: ; Ita: []) (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, writer and producer and founder of the World Cinema Foundation. ... Ghulam (Translates as Slave in English) is a 1998 Bollywood film directed by Vikram Bhatt. ...

Awards and recognition

In 1989, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It is ranked 8th Greatest American film of all time by the American Film Institute and is constantly placed in top 100 of Internet Movie Database's Top 250. Terry Malloy's line in the film, Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

was voted in a 2005 poll, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, by the American Film Institute as the third most memorable line in cinema history [2]. Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Part of the AFI 100 Years. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

It was the winner of eight Oscars:

• Best Actor - Marlon Brando
• Best Picture - Sam Spiegel, producer
• Best Supporting Actress - Eva Marie Saint
• Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White - Richard Day
• Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Boris Kaufman
• Directing - Elia Kazan
• Film Editing - Gene Milford
• Writing, Story and Screenplay - Budd Schulberg

The Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the awards given to actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Marlon Brando, Jr. ... // The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... Sam Spiegel (11 November 1901 - 31 December 1985) was a successful independent film producer. ... The Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the awards given to actresses working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. ... This page may be a user page mistakenly created as an article. ... Charles Rosher the first recipient in 1928 The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is awarded each year to a cinematographer for his work in one particular motion picture. ... Boris Kaufman (Russian: ; August 24, 1897-June 24, 1980) was an Oscar-winning (1954) cinematographer. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to directors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ... Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν, IPA: ), (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. ... The Academy Award for Film Editing was first given for films issued in 1934. ... // The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ...

Nominations

The film also received an additional four Oscar nominations:

• Best Supporting Actor - Lee J. Cobb
• Best Supporting Actor - Karl Malden
• Best Supporting Actor - Rod Steiger
• Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Leonard Bernstein

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to male actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976) was an American actor. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to male actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Karl Malden (born on March 22, 1912) is an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, known for his expansive manner. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to male actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago. ... The Academy Award for Original Music Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: )[1] (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. ...

External links and further reading

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

On the Waterfront

• On the Waterfront at Internet Movie Database
• Raymond, Allen, Waterfront Priest (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955); forward by On the Waterfront screenwriter Budd Schulberg
• The Priest Who Made Budd Schulberg Run: On the Waterfront and Jesuit Social Action, Inside Fordham Online, May 2003
• skyjude - movie legends

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ...