On the Waterfront

Data
Title: On the Waterfront
Year: 1954
Length: 108 minutes
Director: Elia Kazan
Writer: Budd Schulberg, “suggested by” articles by Malcolm Johnson
Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint
Music: Leonard Bernstein
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing (story and screenplay), Best Actor (Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Saint), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (black-and-white) and Best Editing; currently #103 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: dock workers are afraid to speak up against their murder-happy union
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Okay. Makes for a solid story, but if Brando hadn’t gotten his hands on that character it wouldn’t have been anything special.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Okay. Never boring, but it does feel too long.
Cinematography: Indifferent. Does everything it needs to, but never more.
Special effects/design: Eh. The location sets are good. The sound is terrible. And my goodness what did the make-up people do to Brando’s face? As my wife says, his eyebrows are magnificent.
Acting: Great. About as good as acting gets.
Music: Okay. It’s good music, but it is not a score.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Underneath all the exceptional writing and acting, at its heart it’s still just a gangster movie.
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and special effects/design) 8/10 (Good).

Dial M for Murder

Title: Dial M for Murder
Year: 1954
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Frederick Knott, based on his play
Starring: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Distinctions: currently #201 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a man’s intricate plots to kill his wife
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), August 2008
Subjective Rating: 5/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, characters, dialog and subjective rating)

Very well filmed. So well filmed that most people don’t seem to even notice the horrible quality of the writing. It’s a great plot, but it’s written with zero craft. Long monologues describing things that happened off stage/camera might be lazy storytelling for a play, but in a movie? Seriously? Hey, Alfred, you want to film a play? Then adapt it! The music isn’t great, but it’s used quite effectively in a few places. It’s a watchable movie — nowhere near as bad as Rope. Really, it’s just the one point of being obviously and awkwardly not written for the screen that ruins it. I’d almost even say it’s a good movie, but when there’s a fault so glaring that could have been fixed with a little effort, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

The Road

Title: La Strada
Year: 1954
Director: Federico Fellini
Writer: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli & Ennio Flaiano
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart
Music: Nino Rota
Distinctions: Oscar for best foreign language film (1957); currently #215 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a girl is sold to a traveling performer
How I saw it: on video (rented form Netflix), March 2008
Subjective Rating: 5/10
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for dialog, cinematography and subjective rating)

Kind of boring. Not my sort of thing, but well done. If you dig literary analysis and tragic characters, go for it. The music is great (as you might expect from Rota). The main character’s (Masina’s) acting is so bad it’s good; very memorable.