On The Waterfront

Conscience? That stuff can drive you nuts!

Close your eyes for a second.

Picture yourself knowing information that in no way, shape or form is gonna turn out good for you if you open your lips. But can you sit back and not do or say anything while that little thing called your conscience is eating away at your insides? And to add to it all your either gonna lose the girl that you've fallen for, or possibly lose your own life because you snitched on the mob.

Not such an easy decision now is it.

That's that situation Terry Malloy is put in after he helps set up Joey to be killed by Johnny Friendly's goons. He thinks there just going to rough Joey up a little bit, but they actually end up pushing him off the roof for talking to the Crime Bureau. At first Terry cared a little bit that he set Joey up for his death, but keeps it inside because he believes its for the best.

Then things get a little tricky when Eide shows up. Eide happens to be Joey's sister and just wants to know what happened to Joey that night. So that's where things start to change and Terry's conscience is running wild and some big changes are going to happened down on the waterfront.

As far as the focus goes for this film, I would have to say they put most of it on the character and ma bye a little bit on the emotional effect. They make you feel all the emotions that Terry feels himself as he goes through the movie and grabs your attention that way.

Going into the possible theme of this movie, I would have to say its trying to make a comparison between whats morally right and wrong and whats more important, material things or peoples lives. The director is criticizing the society and social institutions and increasing the viewer's awareness of a social problem and need for reform. I think he does a great job of showing that.

The thing that I really thought about after this movie is how one little detail can change the way your life turns out dramatically. If Terry doesn't throw his last fight because of the bet, he had a good chance of living his dream, but because he did he is totally on the opposite end of the spectrum living a life he doesn't believe in.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, it reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "Four Brothers", which kind of runs along the same story line. Even though it was in black and white and it can be kind of hard to understand for our generation the director really caught me with the story line and kept me in it the whole way.