On the Waterfront

"On the Waterfront" (1954) is a crime drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg drawn from real investigations into racketeering along the New Jersey docks. Eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Terry Malloy used to be a contender in the ring. Now he loads freight on the Hoboken piers for Johnny Friendly, a union boss who runs the docks through fear, bribes, and the occasional body in the river. Terry did Friendly a favor once — and a man ended up dead. Now a priest and a dead man's sister are asking him to testify. Marlon Brando plays Terry as a man whose conscience is waking up slowly, painfully, in spite of everything. Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, and Rod Steiger round out a cast with almost no weak performance.

Kazan shot on location in Hoboken through a bitter winter, and the grey light and freezing docks make the film feel documentary-close. Stream "On the Waterfront" online on iFILM.