It’s 1954 and we meet two more superstars in the form of Marlon Brando and Eve Marie Saint. Marlon plays Terry, a retired boxer, who works on the New Jersey waterfront as a docker. The angelic Eve plays his love interest.
The docks are a brutal place. The mob reigns supreme and nobody below the ruling elite is free from a life of oppression and violence. Marlon, despite his honourable countenance, becomes inextricably linked to the criminal underworld. Eve’s brother is murdered in the opening few minutes and the fallout from this sets the tone for the gritty, harsh reality of life in 1950s blue-collar New Jersey.
Marlon Brando joins Clark Gable, Gene Kelly and Lawrence Olivier in having a phenomenal screen presence. You can’t take your eyes off him and his presence is as spellbinding as it is reassuring.
It is a tale of heroism in the face of tyranny, the healing power of romantic love and the ability of peaceful resistance to trump violence. It is very well photographed, the plot grips throughout and Leonard Bernstein’s score supports the mood well. It rightly resides in the Library of Congress.
Rating:
8/10
Reflections:
1. Regimes with an extreme ideology are never sustainable.
Oscar Best Picture Rankings:
1. Casablanca (1943)
2. Rebecca (1940)
3. Lost Weekend (1945)
4. All About Eve (1950)
5. Hamlet (1948)
6. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
8. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
9. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
10. Wings (1928)
11. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
12. You can’t take it with you (1938)
13. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
14. On the Waterfront (1954)
15. Cimarron (1931)
16. Grand Hotel (1932)
17. An American in Paris (1951)
18. From Here to Eternity (1953)
19. It Happened One Night (1934)
20. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
21. Cavalcade (1933)
22. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
23. Going My Way (1944)
24. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
25. All the King’s Men (1949)
26. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
27. The Broadway Melody (1929)
Previous or current ranking leaders are in bold.
With credit and thanks to the patrons of the Best Picture Film Club:
Dr Sophie Bloomfield
Dr Caspar Briault
Dr Fionnuala Durrant
Dr Meera Radia
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