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Post by spiderwort on Jul 22, 2017 18:28:57 GMT
On the Waterfront (1954)A great film, with so many great performances, particularly by Brando (Oscar winning), Eva Marie Saint (Oscar winning), Karl Malden (Oscar nominated), Rod Steiger (Oscar nominated) and Lee J. Cobb (Oscar nominated). Perfect on-location cinematography in Hoboken, N.J. by Boris Kaufman; a beautiful score by Leonard Bernstein, and a story with a theme that is timeless, as relevant and important today as it was when the film was made.
And in terms of performance, oh, Lord, there are scenes in the film that simply take the breath away. I hope everyone will see this glorious cinematic achievement, if they haven't already.
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Post by teleadm on Jul 22, 2017 18:44:17 GMT
I have been wandering what audiences though back then in 1954-1955, it must have hitted them hard.
"I could have been somebody" "instead I'm a bum"
I remember sometimes in the early seventies on swedish TV, I was striked by the purity of Brando's performace (I didn't know it was Brando back then). selldom had such rawness of nature been showned.
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Post by spiderwort on Jul 22, 2017 19:05:32 GMT
I have been wandering what audiences though back then in 1954-1955, it must have hitted them hard. "I could have been somebody" "instead I'm a bum" I remember sometimes in the early seventies on swedish TV, I was striked by the purity of Brando's performace (I didn't know it was Brando back then). selldom had such rawness of nature been showned. It was based upon a series of newspaper articles about corruption on the waterfront at the time, so I imagine it had a lot more immediacy back then. As for Brando's performance, it's sheer perfection, I think. I recently showed a young friend a clip of the scene when Brando and Saint are walking and talking and she drops her glove. This young man is a musician who knows little of films, but when he was watching that scene I swear that within 30 seconds he said in amazement about Brando: "It's like he's not even acting. It's like he's just there." I don't think a greater compliment could be paid to any actor, particularly by someone who knows nothing of the art and craft of the job. |
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Post by teleadm on Jul 22, 2017 19:37:07 GMT
Dropping the Glove scene,
According to Eva Marie Saint, dropping the glove was an accident, she was waiting for somebody to yell "Cut", it didn't happen, so her role in that scene really showed her worries, Brando was just amazing just continuing that scene
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Post by spiderwort on Jul 22, 2017 21:40:44 GMT
Dropping the Glove scene, According to Eva Marie Saint, dropping the glove was an accident, she was waiting for somebody to yell "Cut", it didn't happen, so her role in that scene really showed her worries, Brando was just amazing just continuing that scene Yes, that's exactly the way it happened. Kazan's genius knew he should let the scene run, and Brando's genius told him exactly what to do with the glove. And it made Eva Marie so interesting in those moments, probably more than she would have been without that beautiful accident. |
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Post by petrolino on Jul 23, 2017 2:46:28 GMT
The masterpiece 'On The Waterfront' has so many shades of grey I find myself contrary to every reading. It's assembled by a master filmmaker operating under difficult conditions at the height of his considerable powers, not to mention the Brando superego he sought to somehow encourage, flower, sustain and quell simultaneously. It's among the great American union pictures for me, alongside Richard Fleischer's agricultural nightmare 'Mr Majestyk' (1974), Paul Schrader's automotive assembly choker 'Blue Collar' (1978), Martin Ritt's textile factory expose 'Norma Rae' (1979), Mike Nichols' plutonium plant processor 'Silkwood' (1983), Christopher Guest's SAG card satire 'The Big Picture' (1989) and Steven Soderbergh's independent case study 'Erin Brockervich' (2000). Elia Kazan was a brilliant filmmaker who created iconic assembly and seemed to define gothic decay and casual distrust for a generation.
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