On the Waterfront: A Second Look

It's interesting to watch this after my negative reaction to Gentleman's Agreement. I had large problems with Elia Kazan's earlier film, mostly about how the different pieces never connected dramatically. And then I revisit On the Waterfront, and it's damn near perfect. It makes me wonder if Kazan was one of those filmmakers who didn't…

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Gentleman’s Agreement

This is not drama. It's really not. It's polemic with elements of drama inelegantly hanging over different parts here and there in an effort to make it look like drama, wearing a drama suit that doesn't fit. This is didacticism at its most forceful, obvious, one-sided, earnest, and well-meaning, taking a fight for a good…

On the Waterfront

Occasionally I discover (or, in this case, rediscover) a movie that strikes me with its perfect shot compositions within its first few minutes. The Big Country was like this, but On the Waterfront struck me the same way. The scene in the back of the bar near the beginning of the film that introduces Johnny…