A former boxer working on the New York docks is pressured by the corrupt union boss who controls his life. He slowly realizes the only way out is to testify against him. This is Kazan's most personal film, a masterpiece of American acting and one of the most politically argued-over films ever made.
On the Waterfront is a 1954 crime and drama film directed by Elia Kazan. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 cinematography and 3 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre uses several of the same techniques.
Using specific working-class parts of a city, like its bars, docks and construction sites, to define the characters. The places show who they are expected to be and what leaving would cost.
How this film uses it
Boris Kaufman photographs the Hoboken docks in winter light, and it looks as rough and real as a documentary. The places are specific and they box people in (the shape-up, the hiring hall, the waterfront bars). Every location tells you exactly what kind of life is possible here, and how much moral courage it would take to refuse it.
Where to see it
The shape-up sequence. The men crowd together to be picked for work. One morning ritual shows you who holds power on the waterfront and who depends on them.
Telling the story from the side of the person doing the harm, and letting you inside their head. You start to understand them, which is more uncomfortable than simply condemning them.
How this film uses it
Terry Malloy lured Joey Doyle up to the roof where he was killed, without knowing he would be. The film follows him with that knowledge in place, so you see Terry's guilt alongside his charm, his self-deception and his eventual courage. Telling the story from the side of someone who took part is what makes his moral change cost something. He is discovering injustice and also confessing to his own part in it.
Where to see it
Terry's confession to Edie about his role in Joey's death. He tells the victim's sister what he did, and the cost of being honest becomes immediate and personal.
Building up to a big emotional release slowly, by investing in the characters and giving small bits of hope. When the release comes, it feels deserved after all the suffering.
How this film uses it
At the end, Terry walks into the warehouse beaten nearly to death and barely upright. The release you feel is built from everything before it: the corruption he witnessed, the people he lost and the testimony he gave at enormous cost. The union's power is still an open question after the walk. Terry's moral debt to himself is settled.
Where to see it
Terry's final walk into the warehouse. You watch a man who has been broken still choose to stand, and the union is forced to open the doors.
Taking a character to the opposite of where they started, such as from weak to strong or from decent to compromised. That reversal is what the film is about.
How this film uses it
Terry Malloy sees himself as a man who minds his own business and survives by staying loyal to Johnny Friendly's organization. Over the course of the film, every reason he has to keep seeing himself that way is taken from him. By the end, 'I coulda been a contender' has turned from nostalgia into an accusation he finally acts on.
Where to see it
The taxi scene, with 'I coulda been a contender'. It is the emotional core of his reversal. The man who settled for survival faces what he really was.
Questions
On the Waterfront: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does On the Waterfront use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in On the Waterfront (1954): Working-Class Geography, Perpetrator Perspective, Earned Catharsis and Character Arc Inversion.
Who directed On the Waterfront?
Elia Kazan directed On the Waterfront, released in 1954. CineCode also covers A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), East of Eden (1955), Splendor in the Grass (1961).
What films are similar to On the Waterfront?
Films that share techniques with On the Waterfront include The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Boyhood (2014), Rocky (1976), Gran Torino (2008).
