On the Waterfront is hailed by many as a classic, as one of the finest American films ever made. Well, I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it. Aside from the standard of acting, Brando in particular, I found On the Waterfront to be a completely average movie watching experience.

Perhaps it has something to do with me watching the film now for the first time, nearly 50 years after it was first released. I’m sure if I had been around in 1954 that I would have appreciated the story a lot more. But, the fact is that I have seen a hundred films about the little, down on his luck man rising up against the odds to take on corruption. Sure, On the Waterfront may have been the (or one of the) first to do this, and I accept that. But that doesn’t alter the fact that I have seen it done a whole bunch of times.

Since watching the movie I have read that director Elia Kazan used the film to put forward his side of why he testified in the communist witch hunts of the 50’s. I don’t know enough to comment about that, but I did find that his direction was competent, if nothing startling. He (wisely I thought) gives the actors room to breathe, seemingly confident enough in their ability to just let them get on with it. The pacing of the film is fine; I was never bored at least.

The thing that really worked for me in the film is, as I said the acting. Normally in older films the acting is the weak link. Here it is the strongest. I was impressed with the support, which given the films age, amazingly has a lot of faces that I am familiar with. Karl Malden was good as the priest who takes it as his mission to battle the corruption of the docks. Lee J. Cobb impressed me greatly as the corrupt union leader and Rod Steiger was good as his right hand man. Eva Marie Saint was a looker in her day and she copes admirably in her first big screen role.

The big plaudits though go to Marlon Brando. It’s nice to see Brando in his prime, when he wasn’t north of 400lbs and mumbling incoherently. This performance was out of this world, rightly winning the man an Oscar (one of eight the film garnered). The pain, the turmoil is evident on his face in each and every scene. Terry isn’t the brightest and this shines through Brando’s deep set eyes. I can think of two scenes that stand out for me. The first is the infamous, ‘I could have been a contender’. I’d heard about this scene of course, but to see it is a different matter. This is raw, pure acting, fantastic work.

The other scene is less flashy. It has Brando and Saint walking in a park. Saint drops her white glove and Brando picks it up and puts it on. I remember thinking when watching that it was a particularly nice touch. Upon reading about the movie I see that this was all improvised by Brando, amazing. I must now seek out A Streetcar Named Desire to see more of Brando when he was at his best.