On the Waterfront

I know it's heresy to say so, but I don't think that this is a good movie. Okay, Brando was brilliant in it, and Karl Malden was good in almost anything he did. But, overally, this is a shameless piece of Cold War self-justification by Elia Kazan, who wanted to justify ratting on his friends during the McCarthy era by pretending that highmindedness rather than naked self-interest and cowardice motivated him. And the film has aged badly, the lighting is corny and the writing not much better. You need to see it just so you can see Brando at his best, but don't fall for the hype or the blatant propaganda.