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Casey Jordan
Prof. Geffken
THEA 440
27 October 2015
On the Water Front

On the Water Front, a film written by Budd Schulberg and directed by

Elia Kazan takes place in the 1950s and deals mostly with the social struggle
with the poor working class and the rich mobsters who control them which is
ironic because Elia Kazan the director is know for turning in other directors
such as Arthur Miller for communist threats during the red scare. Johnny
Friendly the head of the mob owns and runs the waterfront business and take
most of the pay from the boast for himself while leaving those who actually
do the work with only pennies a day. Whenever anyone tries to stand up to
him they are quickly silenced with led arrows as Martin Brandos character
Terry Malloy calls them. When Terry falls in love with Edie Doyle played by
Eva Marie Saint he is persuaded by her and the priest for the town to give up
his life in the mob and stand for what is right. After much conflict and the
death of his brother Terry must decide whether it is worth is or not to stand in
font of the court and testify against Johnny Friendly or continue to live life as
a bum and a mobster.
As far as the plot of the movie itself goes I think it was a very solid
movie. The script was filled with very compelling situations that Im sure

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made it really for the actors to buy into and brings a really honest
performance. Everyone in my opinion seem to be very believable, with
maybe the exception of the Native American looking bartender/ mobster who
spent most of his scenes either with a cigarette in his mouth or throwing
down whiskey. In all seriousness though from and acting standpoint and
more specifically a movement stand point the film was really well done. The
star of the show Marlin Brando was very comfortable in everything he did.
Im not sure how he is out side of the film screen but Im sure he is much like
he was in front of it. When I took some time to just focus on qualities of
movement he had I noticed mostly He was pretty direct with everything he
did and said yet he had a lightness about him especially when he was talking
to Eva Marie Saints character. I can see why she fell in love with him so
quickly because its hard to find guys especially nowadays with that quality of
directness and confidents who still come across as lovable. It seams its either
you are a big rough though guy with no emotion or youre a fruit cake with
way to much. I believe he found a really nice balance of directness and
lightness which I guess would be classified as dab if Im going off of our
qualities of movement. Also his quality of movement worked really well when
it came to times when he would really get frustrated at someone or when he
was really trying to stress something he would get a lot more heavy and
forceful especially in that scene where he bust into Edie room and tries to
talk to her. You get to see a huge contrast is how he carries himself from the
beginning of that entrance to when they finally kiss at the end. Also going of

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there relationship Eva Marie Saint was a nice contrast to Brando because a
lot of what she did was very indirect and sort of playing hard to get so
through out a lot of the movie there was the cat and mouse game between
the two of them which was really interesting to watch. But you also saw a
change in her toward the end when she not only stands up to her father but
to Brando and she becomes a lot more confident and direct in the way she
approached her interactions.
It was really nice to watch a movie where two of the leading actors
were so comfortable In their own skin because it allows you to accept them
for who they are instantly and root for them through out the show. Its also
interesting to see how much you can get just from simple movement choices
each actor made. Im sure this film would have been much different with
other actors playing those rolls.