Today I watched Elia Kazan's 1954 film
On the Waterfront. It sounded really familiar, but I honestly never heard anything about it until watching it tonight. I think it was actually really nice to go into it blind, after reading Ebert's essay on it. My opinion of it wasn't colored by all of the history and facts surrounding the film. Not that it's unavoidable, it's just that it was nice to watch it without an analysis already running through my head.
The movie is about Terry Malloy and his experiences with the corrupt dock workers union. The boss, Johnny Friendly, is involved in murders but no one will testify against him, because they are afraid of the consequences of doing so. Terry feels the pull of his conscious, knowing that it is right to testify against the wrong things that Friendly has done, especially after having been greatly screwed over by Friendly before.
