Jordan

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 1950’s 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 Brando’s 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 I’m sure 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

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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. I’m

not sure how he is out side of the film screen but I’m 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 you’re 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 I’m 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 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.

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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. I’m sure this film would have been much different with

other actors playing those rolls.

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