The Cinematheque

“The faces, the bodies, the way they moved, the voices, the way they sounded … they were like the people I saw every day … It was as if the world that I came from, that I knew, mattered.”

Martin Scorsese

Directed by the legendary Elia Kazan (America, America), On the Waterfront is an immensely satisfying and inspirational work and one of the finest of American films—a masterpiece of poetic realism. Can one man make a difference in a cynical and corrupt world? Ex-prizefighter turned stevedore Terry Molloy (a sensuous and sensitive Marlon Brando in one of the great screen performances) takes on boss and protector Johnny Friendly (the explosive and terrifying Lee J. Cobb) when he finds out that the mob has killed the brother of the woman he loves. Torn between loyalties of family and community on the docks of New York, Terry navigates the contours of his conscience in scene after iconic scene. With brilliant location cinematography by Boris Kaufman (L’Atalante, The Pawnbroker), a modernist score by Leonard Bernstein, a streetwise script by Budd Schulberg, and a mesmerizing who’s who cast from the Actors Studio, including Rod Steiger and Karl Malden.

Best Picture, Director, Actor, and awards in five other categories
Academy Awards 1955

Silver Lion
Venice 1954