On the Waterfront

Description

4K Restoration!


Winner of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor

“I coulda had class,” says failed fighter Terry Malloy with all the bruised brilliance Marlon Brando could muster. Maybe so, but On the Waterfront did have class—class acting, class writing, class cinematography, and class warfare. Controversial for its allegations of corruption among the longshoremen’s union, the production itself was chock-full of friendly witnesses at the HUAC hearings, director Kazan, writer Budd Schulberg, and actor Lee J. Cobb among them. Still, Brando’s damaged dockworker, deserted by his brother (Rod Steiger) and vigorously defended by Father Barry (Karl Malden), stands as a memorable Method performance amid a coarse realism drafted by that left-leaning lenser Boris Kaufman. 

—Steve Seid

• Written by Budd Schulberg, based on the articles "Crime on the Waterfront" by Malcolm Johnson published in the New York Sun. Photographed by Boris Kaufman. With Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger. (108 mins, B&W, 4K DCP, From Sony Pictures)