On the Waterfront (1954)
Directed by Elia Kazan
A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.
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What critics compared On the Waterfront to
His shuffling, awkward manner and heavy accent seem to have taken their inspiration from a mixture of Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront and Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa.
In many ways it’s a turn that reminds of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and Sylvester Stallone in Rocky , that blue collar performance where a humbling charm covers a raging beast within, Hardy’s quiet intensity deployed to startling effect alongside a warmth that makes his Bob a character to like, as well as to be fearful of.
He gives another mannered performance in The Drop: as the outwardly meek and simple bartender Bob Saginowski, he seems to be doing his version of Brando in On the Waterfront, though his slurred delivery and stunned-mullet expression might also remind you of a comic such as Chris O'Dowd.
It’s an endlessly rich performance, unpredictable and sharp-edged, with a vulnerability that is, I swear to you, reminiscent of Brando in On the Waterfront.
There are echoes of Brando’s Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront” in Hardy’s Bob.
A seemingly humble man of few words and little education, Bob has a Rocky Balboa vibe about him (which is enhanced by his chaste courtship of the bookish Nadia), plus a little of Brando’s Terry Malloy from On the Waterfront.
Her homesickness is relieved by the attentions of Tony (an attractive Cohen, channelling Brando in the opening reels of On The Waterfront), an Italian-American who seems far too good to be true.
Tony (Emory Cohen, who makes you think of Marlon Brando in his "On the Waterfront" era) is clearly not in Eilis' league: He's a plumber who isn't much for reading and writing, and still lives in a cramped apartment with his boisterous Italian family (a dinner scene with them is a highlight).
He's like a sunnier Terry Malloy, the actor even resembling the young Brando (and in fact, Cohen partially based his performance on "On the Waterfront").
It’s reminiscent of the Lee J. Cobb and Marlon Brando encounter in Elia Kazan’s “On The Waterfront” from 1954.
Eastwood's taut scenes with O'Byrne recall Brando's with Karl Malden in On the Waterfront, laced with even more ferocious questioning and dismay.
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Her grandfather, filmmaker Elia Kazan, was both legendary ( On the Waterfront , A Streetcar Named Desire and East of Eden are all on his directorial resumé´) and controversial (he ratted on lefties in McCarthy-era Hollywood).
And yes, for those old enough to remember, she is the granddaughter of film and stage director Elia Kazan (“On the Waterfront,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “East of Eden,” etc.) and playwright Molly Kazan, as well as the daughter of screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord.
Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed On the Waterfront .
Her grandfather, the Broadway and Hollywood legend Elia Kazan, directed A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront; her parents are screenwriters Robin Swicord (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Nicholas Kazan (Frances, Patty Hearst, Reversal of Fortune, Matilda).
Even " Erin Brockovich " herself owes something to the spirit of Brando's inspirational performance at the end of the film.
Kroc dreams big, and believes in his ability to make those big dreams happen – a point further underscored when he ducks into a showing of On the Waterfront.
Kroc is depicted as desperate; he watches On The Waterfront and his favourite song is Pennies From Heaven, he’s evangelical about the potential of McDonald’s, and his marriage to Laura Dern has hit a wall, which makes this “professional leech” a “wolf in the henhouse” with everything to play for.
Meanwhile, it’s interesting to watch Michael Keaton plow through the myriad facts provided by members of the McDonald family estate to orchestrate some character details of his own—swigging rye, gleaning inspiration from his favorite movie On the Waterfront, listening joyfully to the song “Pennies From Heaven” as his marriage to the wife who sees through him (Laura Dern) tanks.
The Coen brothers not only expect their audience to keep track of a byzantine plot, but we are clearly meant to appreciate both the critiques of genre (gangland melodrama, noir thriller, slapstick comedy) and references to specific films (The Godfather, On the Waterfront, even Diabolique in reverse) they plant like cherry bombs all over the picture.
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If On the Waterfront was Kazan's apologia for singing like a canary, then Julia's late career seems an apologia for buying someone else's husband and getting away with it, for the most part, in the court of public opinion.
But much as Brando's brilliance in On the Waterfront was ultimately used to serve the self-righteous self-justifications of director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg for having squealed on their colleagues during the Hollywood blacklisting -- turning him into a pretentious Christ figure to validate their own alleged martyrdom -- Day-Lewis's charisma may well be used to advertise, even glorify, ethnic cleansing.