Shannon Murray
Dr. Vasileiou
ENG 103.2682
20 May 2011
Living Life On the Waterfront
No one expected the success of the film, On the Waterfront, not even the cast and crew. After twelve nominations and eight Oscars at the 1955 Academy Awards for categories including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay, this influential film changed the movie industry forever (IMDB). During an era of “epics and musicals” this film “with its social theme and location shooting, and in particular its close observation of working-class life…was far from typical of its time” (Neve). On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schullberg is the story of a longshoreman, played by Marlon Brando, who works at the Port of New York and New Jersey in the 1950s and witnesses corruption in the labor unions, which are ultimately controlled by the mob. There is a “code of silence” which all of the longshoremen, must live by if they want to continue living their life; they must do nothing and say nothing. Although this film is not a documentary, which is often assumed, it depicts the lives of longshoremen on the waterfront during 1950s, which is the time it was filmed and the time the story takes place. Kazan and Schullberg worked hard to make sure that On the Waterfront was portrayed realistically regarding the social, political and economic aspects of life at that time in New York City.
On the Waterfront seemed to be cursed from the beginning. Originally released in July of 1954, this classic film, with an all-star cast such as Brando, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint, and an Academy Award winning director Kazan (Gentleman’s Agreement, Streetcar Named Desire) “very nearly went unrealized” (Fisher 238). After several rewrites of the script from Schullberg to make it more “Hollywood” and several more rejections from producers such as Twentieth Century Fox, producer Sam Spiegel agreed to make the picture with the help of United Artists and Columbia Pictures. They originally had a budget of $800,000 which was enough financing for an independent, black and white film, but they couldn’t seal the deal with Brando for political issues in the film. After offering the role to Hoboken bred Frank Sinatra, they made an agreement with Brando, who was an “overnight sensation with his performance as Stanley Kowalski in the 1947 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire,” and persuading Columbia Pictures to increase the budget to $880,000 (Fisher 244-45). The dark and violent film which was actually filmed in Hoboken instead of a pier on the West Side, and was filmed November through December, mainly outside and in the cold. The film is about a man named Terry Malloy, Brando, who acts as an accomplice to the mobsters running the waterfront, but never actually kills anyone he just plays “D & D,” deaf and dumb. Since he is working under the mob, he is guaranteed a job everyday at the ports loading and hauling with the other longshoreman. Doing half as much and making twice as much as everyone else, he follows the code by never talking to anyone, especially the police. The character of Father Pete Barry, who is a typical witty and loud Irishman, but a not so typical priest, is based on a real person named Father Peter Corridan, who was a huge part in the making of the film. Both Corridan and his alter-ego Barry fight against the union and try to convince the longshoreman to speak out against them, for all the men who have died trying to speak out. Terry falls for Edie Doyle, played by Saint, who is the sister of Joey Doyle, a man recently killed by the mob for talking with the help of Terry. Throughout the film Terry struggles with whether he should stay loyal to the mobsters and his brother who have always taken care of him, or whether he should stand up for what’s right. Eventually he decides to testify against Johnny Friendly in court to defend everyone who has been killed by these murderers. At the pier he knows he has something coming for him, and after they brutally beat him up, he stands up and walks away, followed by the other couple hundred longshoremen.
The Port of New York and New Jersey covered a vast area of land, which had everyone struggling for power. The Hudson County waterfront was a big part of the port that was sometimes overlooked even though it was just across the river. Although the West Side of New York is where Schulberg originally imagined the setting for his screenplay, it was not the location chosen to make this film. The film was actually shot in Hoboken instead of the crowded and noisy streets of the city. This was one of the first postwar films to prove that Hollywood wasn’t the only place where films could be made. Filming in Hoboken was a plus because it still felt like the city and a primal film set without actually feeling like a real place and it was “a perfect blank canvas on which New York filmmakers inscribed their vision” (Fisher 252). According to Peter Manso, Marlon Brando’s biographer, “Schulberg practically lived on the Hoboken waterfront,” to ensure the realism shined through in his writing even though his reports thus far have been based on the West Side (Fisher 253). Throughout the film the location is never mentioned and remains unknown. However there were problems faced in creating a neutral environment between the New Jersey side and the New York side. “It offered no Jesuit schools or parishes” needed to portray the true role of Father Pete Barry that Father Corridan struggled for (Fisher 256). That being said, the New Jersey side was a lot safer for the longshoreman to seek assistance and join the cause. There was also the problem of which pier to film on since most of them were nonexistent or unavailable. An “immediate renovation” of Pier 3 resulted in a “940-foot double deck” pier renamed Pier 1 and became an extremely important background in On the Waterfront (Fisher 258). The locations used in Hoboken were all real places that were altered to keep the location impartial such as Hoboken Yacht Club, which was used as Johnny Friendly’s office, and the rooftop of an apartment building where the pigeons were kept. Even though Hoboken wasn’t the center of the struggle for power in the port, it was still dangerous. Kazan once stated, “The atmosphere was that violent…We were right in the midst of life on that picture, and it shows, doesn’t it?” (Fisher 264). This film portrayed realism so well because of its location and shooting a film at a time where true hardships were being experienced.
The actors in the film had a huge role in portraying the film in a realistic way. Even before his infamous, “I could have been a contender” line in the film, Marlon Brando had since proved himself as a serious actor in previous films such as Streetcar Named Desire in which he gave “one of the greatest Method performances of all time” (Lewis 223). Method acting was a “style of acting that forsakes the expression of artificial emotions by gestures and other acting techniques for more naturalistic expressions based on the actor’s own deeply felt emotions,” which helped Terry Malloy’s character (Lewis 223). In a scene where Edie drops her glove in the park, Brando picks it up and tries it on, which added both spontaneity and realism to the scene. According to his co-star Eva Marie Saint, “Marlon would never do any scene quite the same…It became the catalyst to keep me in the scene” (Fisher 268). “The long take of Terry and Edie Doyle first talking in a playground, are classics of naturalistic acting style and emotional realism” used by both actors throughout the film (Neve). Schulberg even hired Brando a “former professional middle weight…to teach Brando to carry himself like an ex-fighter” (Fisher 271). Although Terry’s character is not specifically based on a single person, he does represent the people who ignored the politically run and socially unjust waterfront system, but eventually stood up for themselves. Brando, who “was fifteen or more years younger than the top male box-office stars of the fifties, including John Wayne, Gary Cooper and James Stewart” further established himself after receiving the Best Actor Oscar for his truly believable role in On the Waterfront.
Brando and Karl Malden were both favored by the people of Hoboken for their “easygoing camaraderie with the townspeople” (Fisher 262). However, Brando wasn’t the only Method actor who really helped to shape this film. Malden’s character, Father Barry, was based on the most important person in the entire waterfront reform, Father Corridan. He spent eleven days with the priest, who was known for his drinking as well as his unconventional and tough attitude, just to prepare for the role. When the real Pete Corridan walked onto set the first a longshoreman asked, “Are you the real or the phony one?” (Fisher 252). “Malden wore Corridan’s hat and coat throughout the shoot” just so he could really feel the character he was portraying (Fisher 262). In the scene where Malden flawlessly delivers the “Christ in the Shapeup” speech, which was the actual speech of Father Corridan, some critics felt that his role was “way too dominant” as well as “unbearably hammy with his sermons” (Fisher 272). What these critics failed to understand was that the real Father Corridan delivered that same speech verbatim a few years prior and it was the “soul and spirit” of Schulberg’s original script. That role rewarded Malden with an Oscar nomination the following year.
In the film, most of the extras that played longshoremen were real longshoremen (Neve). They “were ferried across the river” every morning, paid $15 per day, the same amount for a day’s work on the pier, and they even participated in “shapeups” which are true longshoremen hiring methods, where the strongest and fittest men are picked to work (Fisher 262-63). Kazan wanted real longshoremen so they could show true emotion and didn’t have to “try to look like real people” (Fisher 263). Kazan also felt the midwinter cold and outdoor shooting really made the actors look like normal people instead of celebrities, and created a bond of stamina between extras and actors. He said, “It showed true struggle and suffering because they had no choice” (Fisher 263). A thirteen year old resident of one the buildings, named Tommy Hanley, was originally hired to feed the pigeons on the rooftop. When they found out that his father was a longshoreman and had been murdered when he was only a baby, “they promised the youngster a part in the film” (Fisher 263). Even though some of these things are not so obvious, every decision was made to bring out character’s emotions and to bring a strong sense of realism to the film. Schulberg remembered in an interview that, “hundreds of longshoremen were in the movie…and racketeers watching from the sidelines. It was unreal. What we were putting up on screen was happening all around us” (Fisher 265).
New York City has been through some of the most corrupt leaders such as Tammany Hall and John “Cockeye” Dunn but it also included a lot more gangsters like “King Joe” Ryan, Frank Hague and the McCormack brothers. Since the late 19th century there have been some questionable people in charge at the West Side waterfront. A prominently Irish Catholic community grew in this area over the years. Families moved as close to the pier as possible so the men had a better chance of getting work and providing for their families. Thousands of men would show up for work and only a few hundred would actually be picked. Poverty was extremely high, especially because of the money the mobsters were taking out of the paychecks of the longshoremen. If you had a problem or went to the police, you most likely ended up in the bottom of the Hudson River. The laws we have today to protect the rights of labor union workers did not exist. It was a dog eat dog world and basically it was survival of the fittest.
Works Cited:
1. Fisher, James T. On the Irish Waterfront. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. Print.
2. Fisher, James T. “Insert Title Here.” The Irish Waterfront. 25 May 2011. Web. 25 May 2011. <http://irishwaterfront.wordpress.com/>
3. Lewis, Jon. American Film: a history. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. 223-25. Print.
4. Neve, Brian. “On the waterfront.” History Today 45.6 (1995): 19. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 27 May 2011.
5. “On the Waterfront.” IMDB. Web. 25. May 2011. <http://www.imdb.com/tttle/tt0047296/>
6. Williams, Gregory H. The City College of New York Class of 1954 50th Anniversary Reunion. Class of 1954 Reunion Committee. City College of New York, New York, NY. 06 June 2004. Speech.
7. “The Year 1954.” The People History. Copyscape, 2004. Web. 35 May 2011. <http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1954.html>
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