Product description
Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint star in the Academy Award winning film about a dockside worker and ex-prizefighter who heroically goes up against his corrupt labor leaders to expose the union's criminal practices. Despite the protests of union leaders and continual controversy during its original release, On The Waterfront was a smash hit at the box office and the 1954 Academy Awards. No one was more surprised by the movie's success than Columbia mogul Harry Cohn, who had predicted the high intensity drama's doom from the start. Directed by Elia Kazan, the film stars Brando as the uneducated dock worker who rises up and risks his life for his principles. His spectacular performance influenced a generation of actors and popularized the intense, gritty virtues of Method acting. At one point in casting however, Frank Sinatra was offered the role because Brando couldn't decide if he wanted it. In retrospect, it's impossible to imagine anyone but Brando as Malloy, the noble stoolie "who coulda been a contender." Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Actor (Brando), Supporting Actress (Saint), Directing, Writing, Cinematography, Art Direction and Film Editing. 1954, Black and White, English Language, Closed Captioned, Hi-Fi, Approximate Running Time 108 minutes, Not Rated.
Amazon.com
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
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Package Dimensions : 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 ounces
- Run time : 1 hour and 48 minutes
- Release date : October 23, 2001
- Date First Available : December 7, 2006
- Actors : Brando, Malden, Cobb, Steiger, Hen
- Studio : Columbia/Tristar Studios
