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On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront

Crime · Drama · Romance · 1954

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

Movie details

On the Waterfront

“The man lived by the jungle law of the docks!”

1954 Crime · Drama · Romance 1h 48m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

8.1 / 10

172.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

99 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

91 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over On the Waterfront?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Elia Kazan

Written by

Budd Schulberg

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Terry Malloy

Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint

Edie Doyle

Karl Malden

Karl Malden

Father Barry

Lee J. Cobb

Lee J. Cobb

Johnny Friendly

Rod Steiger

Rod Steiger

Charley Malloy

Pat Henning

Pat Henning

Kayo Dugan

Leif Erickson

Leif Erickson

Glover

Court is in session

Put On the Waterfront on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.