I watched "On the Waterfront" last night, and I have seen it many times. This movie is a perfect capsule for any viewer. The actors are superb in their roles, the dialogue is raw and powerful, the staging is tight and reflects the claustrophobic nature of the characters' lives in this part of Hoboken. You have the feeling that they never leave this area of maybe a few blocks, because they feel trapped by their circumstances, poverty, grueling work, and the corruption that's endemic in this place and system.Marlon Brando is Terry, a failed prize fighter with deep regrets and loneliness, who is a low-level thug in this corrupt system dominated by the bombastic, cruel union boss, Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb in an electrifying performance). He rules the waterfront with brutality and terror. To make Terry feel even more trapped is the fact that his only living relative, his brother, Charlie (Rod Steiger), is Friendly's right-hand man. Terry has no great ambitions in life, and seems resigned to this bleak path until fate, and two shining lights, appear in his life: Edie (Eva Marie Saint), a decent, loving, determined and angelic blonde woman, and Father Barry (Karl Malden), the local priest who can throw a punch, drink a beer and stand up to the mob with the strength of his faith behind him. Terry and Edie embark on a seemingly doomed romance that both actors play so beautifully. You can feel their yearning, their awkwardness, their passion for each other and their deep connection -- all without the explicit nudity and fake grunting used in contemporary movies. When they embrace, you feel their desperation and desire for each other in a profound way."On the Waterfront" is certainly director Elia Kazan's great masterpiece. The performances are all outstanding, and Brando is just a marvel of tortured pain and passion and agony and courage. One particular thing I love about "On the Waterfront" is the scenery. Every set or outdoor shot conveys the grim, cold nature of the characters' lives. There is no movie glamour and little comfort here. Only a hot cup of coffee made on a plug-in heating plate in a "cold-water flat," or a beer and a shot hastily consumed in a waterfront saloon are pleasures to these characters. Their clothes are patched. Edie's hair isn't "styled," and she wears no makeup. Terry's face is a bit scarred. Malden's nose is...as we all know. The gritty setting feels real. If you've never seen this movie for any reason, do not delay!

Marlon Brando has been said to be the best actor ever and..rightly so. One cannot forget his stellar performance in The Godfather. However, it is in On the Waterfront the he is at his best, his sills peak. But this review is not about Brando (not only) we will get on to that later on. This is a piece of writing that is aimed at reviewing one of the greatest movies of all time.The clue is in the very title. Brando's character, former pro-boxer, works down at the docks. How did he end up there? I do not want to give away more than it is strictly necessary but...let us just say he go involved with the wrong people. In this sense, the movie help the American society to wake up to what was going on at the docks in New York, its endemic corruption and racketeering. And we all know that once you are dragged into the mob world there is no turning back, no one is going to pull you back out of it. Or...is there somebody? When a beautiful woman comes along to shatter Brandon's life once again, this time around in a positive way, this ex boxer finds some badly-needed courage and will try to turn things around.

Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) gloats about his iron-fisted control of the waterfront. The police and the Waterfront Crime Commission know that Friendly is behind a number of murders, but witnesses play "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"), accepting their subservient position rather than risking the danger and shame of informing.Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "The Gent" (Rod Steiger) is Friendly's right-hand man. Some years earlier, Terry had been a promising boxer, until Friendly had Charley instruct him to deliberately lose a fight that he could have won, so that Friendly could win money betting against him. Terry is used to coax Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), a popular dockworker, into an ambush, preventing Joey from testifying against Friendly before the Crime Commission. Terry assumed that Friendly's enforcers were only going to "lean" on Joey to pressure him into silence, and is surprised when Joey is killed.

This movie has been accepted as a masterpiece. I am not going to argue. I am 76 years old and saw it when I was 14. It gets better with every viewing and I now know the script by heart. The idea it would ever rate less than ten stars plus can only show the ignorance of so many who set themselves up as some kind of critic. Far too many. Fools. There is nothing else to say apart from that Brando and Rod and Lee were at the their peak and the Kazan could be said to have taken Hollywood into a place that had not been before. A fine suggestion of reality in a world of fake people making trashy movies. Lennie's homage to Copeland is another bonus.