On The Waterfront
Brian Neve discusses what the film that made Marlon Brando a fifties icon has to tell us about American society and politics in the McCarthy era.
A pantheon of 1950s American-film-making might include John Ford's The Searchers or Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window while the top box office successes of the decade included White Christmas, Cinerama Holiday and The Ten Commandments. Yet if one film of that era is required to illustrate the unique power of the cinema to resonate with its time, and become an emblem for it, On the Waterfront would be a strong contender.
While the image of Marlon Brando in the film has become an icon of 'the fifties', On the Waterfront relates most strongly to the post-war decade that preceded its release in 1954. Context is provided by three inter- related circles of events, the first of' which is the ideological and cultural conflict that dominated the late forties and early fifties, and which was fought out in Hollywood as well as Washington. The second concerns the changing political economy of the American film industry, and finally there is the history of the New York waterfront itself.
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