On the Waterfront which was directed by Elia Kazan in 1954, was a highly acclaimed film that showed the problems that were associated with the labor unions at the time with a bit of other events that affected the outcome of the movie. This film was set in New York City and purposely made in black and white in order to give the affect of the old ages. This movie starred Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy), Karl Malden (Father Barry), Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly), Rod Steiger (Charley Malloy) and Eva Marie Saint (Edie Doyle). This group of actors helped make the film the great that it is known as today. They even helped the movie win 8 Oscars!.
In this essay I am going to compare the various crowd scenes that were in the movie. All these scenes impacted the way the movie progressed. It had great impact to the finale of the movie.
The first one I will compare is the scene with the dockworkers scrambling for work tabs. This scene is the scene that shows just how big of an influence the mob was in people's lives. This is set near on the docks near the boat, which has all the cargo. You can see the mob boss Johnny Friendly (with the assistance of his mob friends) handing out work tabs to the people. The men's hands are all waving in the air in hopes for a job. Some people were lucky enough to get work tabs while the others are out of luck. This scene is vital to the film because it makes the audience think about the people being affected. The dockworkers do not have any work for that day unless they get a tab. There are no unions made to help them. In the movie, when a man named Joey Doyle (Edie's brother) spoke out about the corruption in the harbor work forces he got killed by the mob. This causes fear amongst the people. The director shows the anxiety in their faces by putting the camera over their heads so we can see the reaction. When the mob stopped giving out tickets, you heard people saying how they needed one but Johnny refused to give one.
