Brando at his best – “On the Waterfront” Columbia Classics Collection: Volume 5

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

Marlon Brando stars in his Oscar-winning role as former boxer and longshoreman Terry Malloy, who starts a relationship with Edie Doyle, played by Eva Marie Saint in her first on screen appearance.

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“ON THE WATERFRONT” – COLUMBIA CLASSICS COLLECTION: VOLUME 5

4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1954; Not Rated; Digital via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), Fandango Home (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), YouTube (4K)

Best extra: “Contender: Mastering the Method” (2001)

MARLON BRANDO was a known-star by the time he made his sixth film, Elia Kazan’s Oscar-winner “On the Waterfront.” He won a well-deserved Best Actor Academy Award, with co-star Eva Marie Saint earning Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

“On the Waterfront” was nominated for 12 and won 8 Oscars that night in 1955, including Best Director for Kazan; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay for Budd Schulberg, Best Black & White Cinematography for Boris Kaufman, Best B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration for Richard Day, and Best Film Editing for Gene Milford. Nominees included Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, and Leonard Bernstein for Best Music/Score.

Does “Waterfront” hold up today? Absolutely. And it’s a terrific addition to Columbia Classics Collection 4K Ultra HD No. 5, which also features Oscar-winners “All the King’s Men” (1949); “A Man for All Seasons” (1966); “Tootsie” (1982); “The Age of Innocence” (1993) and “Little Women” (2019).

(1) “On the Waterfront” premiered July 28, 1954 in New York City. (2&3) Terry Malloy lures Joey Doyle to the roof of his tenement building to give him one of his pigeons. He believes henchmen for mob boss and Local 374 President Johnny Friendly are going rough Joey up, so he won’t testify against them in front of the New York State Crime Commission. (4) Pop Doyle (John Hamilton), Joey's father, identifies the body to the police. (5&6) Father Barry (Karl Malden) gives Joey last rights. (7) Edie yells, “Who killed my brother?”

Inspired by the Pulitzer prize-winning series “Crime on the Waterfront” by reporter Malcolm Johnson for New York’s The Sun newspaper, Hollywood insider and screenwriter Budd Schulberg and a partner bought the screen rights. Then they began hanging out at the docks to do their own research, Keith Phipps explains in his essay included in the 80-page book inside the six-film set.

The pair had written an early draft of “On the Waterfront,” when they met controversial director Elia Kazan. The young director, who co-founded the Actors Studio, had already won an Academy Award for Best Director for “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), and had been nominated for another Oscar for the screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1952), also starring Brando, which Kazan had directed on Broadway.  

But, during the height of the Cold War, Kazan cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming old friends from the 1930s who had been members of the American Communist Party. Many were blacklisted and Hollywood was outraged.

(1) Local 374 President Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). (2) Terry with his brother Charley Malloy (Rod Steiger), Friendly's lawyer. (3) After Joey's death, Terry retreats to his pigeon coop. (4) Longshoremen wait to be called to unload a cargo ship. (5) Father Barry holds a meeting at the church after Joey's death. (6) Terry appears to spy for his brother. (7) Friendly's stooges break up the meeting, injuring Kayo Dugan (Pat Henning). (8) Terry and Edie strike up a conversation at a neighborhood park.

Fast forward to March 30, 1955 – it’s Oscar night.

Oddly, it was a bicoastal event on a Wednesday night, with showbiz sensation Bob Hope as the master of ceremonies in Hollywood, and legendary character actress Thelma Ritter co-hosting from NBC’s theater in New York City.

“On the Waterfront,” with 12 nominations, was undoubtedly the front-runner.

The gritty drama from Kazan and Schulberg follows Terry Malloy (Brando), a former boxer and Irish-American longshoreman trying to overthrow a crooked union. The film had been proclaimed Anti-American and denounced by union leaders, while a cloud of dissension hung over Kazan. Despite the odds, it was a sweep by night’s end when the film won eight Academy Awards.

Three different Aspect Ratios

1.37:1, 1.66:1 & 1.85:1

VIDEO

Sony scanned the original open-matte 35mm camera negative in 4K nearly 15 years ago. The 4K master was first used by The Criterion Collection to produce their impressive 2013 Blu-ray edition.

When the film approached its 70th anniversary, Sony decided to use the same 4K master, adding HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading. The added resolution and the expanded gray scale give the masterpiece new life in 4K. The organic and gritty black-and-white film grain is far better defined, while shadow detail is much improved with its varying levels of grays and blacks. Yes, several shots are out-of-focus, generating a documentary mood, which is where Polish cinematographer Boris Kaufman (“Baby Doll,” “12 Angry Men”) got his start. Everything was encoded onto a 100 GB disc, while the video bit ran between 70 Megabits per second to over 90 Mbps. And, the HDR10 peak brightness hits 1258 nits and averages 96 nits.

Again, like the Criterion box set, Sony presents “On the Waterfront” in three different aspect ratios on three 4K discs. When it hit theaters in 1954, widescreen movies were fairly new, so Columbia Studios provided theater owners three options. First, the traditional square-shaped open-matte framing (1.37:1 ratio) that had been around for decades. That meant there would be extra space over the actor’s heads and towards the bottom of the frame, diluting emotional impact compared to the widescreen versions. Sorry to say, this is the version we have been accustomed to seeing for decades with standard-def TV, VHS, and DVD.

Now we get Kaufman’s widescreen Oscar-winning composition. One is a tighter crop (1.85:1 ratio), the version shown at its premiere, and a slightly looser widescreen (1.66:1 ratio), which is Kaufman’s preferred framing.

AUDIO

A new Dolby Atmos soundtrack was constructed, giving Leonard Bernstein’s active score – at times reminiscent of “West Side Story” – the bliss of symphonic sound, while extracting environmental effects from the waterfront, urban sounds, dockyard, and alleyway in the enveloping soundstage. The dialogue is still front and center and never lost. For purists, Sony also provides the restored straightforward Mono 2.0 DTS HD track.

Accident or Orchestrated Murder?

(1-3) Down in the ship's hold, henchman and foreman Big Mac (James Westfield) watches whistleblower Kayo Dugan (Pat Henning) as a cargo load swings out of control and kills Dugan. (4-7) Father Barry gives an impromptu eulogy for Kayo. “I came down to keep a promise. I gave Kayo my word that if he stood up to the mob, I’d stand up with him, all the way. He was one of those fellas who had the gift for standing up. But this time, they fixed him.”

Terry, Edie, her father, and the crew take in Father Barry's emotional speech. Karl Malden received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.

“It’s as close as I ever came to making a film exactly the way I want.” — Director Elia Kazan

EXTRAS

Hours of bonus features are included on the single Blu-ray disc, featuring the informative 25-minute documentary “Contender: Mastering the Method” (2001) that examines the hopeless relationship between the two brothers. In one of filmdom’s most poignant scenes, ex-prizefighter Terry Malloy (Brando) confronts his corrupt brother Charley (Rod Steiger): “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.” “This four-minute scene is one of the most famous moments in acting,” says the late James Lipton, host of “Inside the Actors Studio.”

The grueling, 36-day shooting schedule filmed in the dead of winter took Kazan and the cast to the docks and alleys of Hoboken, New Jersey. Still, it’s Brando’s unique acting style that brings this masterpiece to the forefront. In one scene, Terry (Brando) walks with love interest Edie (Eva Marie Saint), who drops a glove by mistake. Brando picks it up and puts the glove on his hand while staying in character. “I break up watching Brando and Eva Marie together,” Kazan says during a 12-minute featurette (2001), who was glad he kept the cameras rolling.

The director recalled years later, “When Brando, at the end, yells at Lee Cobb, the mob boss, ‘I’m glad what I done – you hear me? – glad what I done!' that was me saying, with identical heat, that I was glad I’d testified as I had.”

Critic Kent Jones and the legendary Martin Scorsese sit down for a conversation (2013) about Kazan’s influence, and Scorsese’s impressions on seeing “On the Waterfront” as a kid. “The faces, the bodies, the way they moved… the voices, the way they sounded. They were like the people I saw every day. It was as if the world that I came from, that I knew, mattered.”

A carryover commentary with Kazan biographer Jeff Young and Time Magazine critic Richard Schickel, who considers “On the Waterfront” as “The Master director’s masterpiece.” Young chuckles about how there was actually a longshoreman election just after “On the Waterfront” premiered; the results were not as expected. “The good guys still lost, but it was close,” he says.

Kazan’s acceptance was simple when he was awarded the Golden Statue for Best Director. “A director doesn’t make a picture. A whole lot of people do, and I want to thank each one of them."

And, we thank you – Mr. Kazan.

― Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer

(1) Terry looks after Joey’s pigeons. (2&3) Charley Malloy is pressured to keep Terry from testifying for the Crime Commission. (4) Terry tells his brother, “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.” (5) Terry and Edie escape down an alleyway.

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(1&2) Terry testifies about Johnny Friendly's part in Joey Doyle's death. (3-5) Terry returns to the docks with dozens of other longshoremen to look for work as Friendly threatens him.