Sometimes it takes a while for a film to resonate. I love Westerns, but did not care for the "Man with No Name trilogy" when I first saw those three movies. Waterfront was much the same way.
I saw On the Waterfront when I was younger, in my teens, and didn't even finish it. I couldn't understand why people considered it one of the best ever. The next time I watched it, I was in my 30s, and understood why people loved it so much. "This is really amazing" I thought, before we got to the end. As we wrapped things up, I hated the conclusion. The film immediately went into my category of great films with terrible endings along with Million Dollar Baby, Mystery Men, Once Upon a Time in the West and Return of the Jedi.
(Spoiler Alert) I wanted to like Waterfront, but couldn't get past the fact that Terry (Brando's character) got the crap beat out of him by 20 guys, and that was supposed to be a win. No one helped him- not the dock workers, not the police, not the priest that said he was going to stand by him all the way. But the problem wasn't the film, it was my modern lens.
In the first part of the 20th century, cities looked at crime differently. If two guys settled an argument with a fight and no one else got involved, it was considered finished. There were no (or almost none) assault and battery charges. Fist fights were considered a normal pert of life, especially in big cities. Murder and attempted murder were also treated differently. A conviction on a murder charge most certainly meant the electric chair. So as long as the roughnecks on the docks settled things with fists, the police had better things to do.
So Terry, standing up to the union bosses and organized crime, got up after the beating and slowly walked in to go do his job. Everybody that was watching also walked in with him, when they would not move before. Terry was the only one with enough guts to stand up to the mob, and they were only going in with him. Terry, knowing that Johnny Friendly's gang wasn't going to kill him, because they already had the Feds breathing down their necks for racketeering and one slip would have put Johnny Friendly in the chair.
Terry (helped by the priest) becomes an archetypical Jesus figure, taking the beating for everybody else, and then leading them in to victory. It's actually very poetic. The dockworker sheep will not advance without someone leading the way, and Terry steps up. Johnny also plays his part as the devil, sure that he has won when the goons almost beat Terry to death. But Terry rises, refusing to stay down, stealing Johnny's victory.
On the Waterfront is a nearly perfect film if viewed in the proper time setting. Viewed with a modern lens we ask silly questions like "why didn't Edie's dad file a restraining order?" "Why didn't Terry file assault charges?" "Why wasn't Charley's death investigated?" The answers are in the era- things were done differently in society and in law enforcement.
IMDB says 8.1. Again, they don't get it. It's up there with some of the best. Not quite a 9, but almost. 8.8/10.
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