Masculine world

1. Masculine world • No female in the mob: male control/power • World of violence: boxing, crime, murder, fist-fight at the end • Women should be protected; Father Barry and Pop do not want Edie to be exposed to such aggression/violence • Park scene: Terry picks up and puts Edie’s glove on his hand • Edie dressed in a white nightgown-frailty, vulnerability • Edie suggests there are other ways of seeking revenge for his brother’s death • Contrast between masculine and feminine • Hero (Terry) is very masculine: ‘strong, silent type’ • Joey’s jacket is passed onto KO and then Terry • Type of coats/jackets represent roles played by men in society

2. Individual heroism and collective struggle • Narrative begins with sacrifice of Joey (“everybody loved him”) • While Terry appears to be the hero, he is constantly influenced by others • Throwing the tokens for the workers is akin to throwing crumbs for pigeons • Always an individual who instigates and enforces change when there is a collective struggle • Father Barry encourages action against the mob; influences Terry • The struggle (for the workers) is job security; they are oppressed by the bosses, who use fear, intimidation • Terry was protected by the mob; he has made sacrifices (his career); when he testifies, he also risks his connection to Johnny’s gang • McCarthyism-Communist blacklist to prevent infiltration into USA lifestyle/values • Final ‘long walk’ scene • Motif of Joey’s jacket (passing on the mantle of hero)

3. Moral struggle and individual conscience • Displayed through characterisation of central protagonist Terry, who constantly questions his actions; regrets his role in Joey’s death; conscience is influenced through fear, his moral standards and his love for Edie • “you know, if I spill, my life ain’t worth a nickel” • “how much is your soul worth if you don’t?” • Father Barry invites Terry to contemplate which is the correct choice (bar scene) • To testify or remain loyal: shows his ability to overcome fear of rejection by his community • Car scene with Charley-Terry has to decide whether to follow his brother’s request or ‘be somebody’, Charley’s struggle

4. Family and community bonds • Johnny’s relationship with Terry: slaps him on the back, acts like the father figure • Terry and Charley have grown up with the mob (they can be considered as a family-united by desire for money) • Strength of sibling bond between Terry and Charley • Terry is united with workers in final scene (acceptance) • Terry can be seen as a recluse (escapes to pigeon coop) and outsider • Tommy feels betrayed by Terry • Edie’s family (shows financial hardship and sacrifices) • The Church gives workers the right to speak (place for communal bonding)

5. Redemption • When someone has taken a morally wrong path, they turn it around and makes a choice that is more morally correct • Terry decides to testify against the mob (encouraged by Edie’s love and Charley’s death) • Terry is initially presented as a ‘bum’ • A series of events (and people) encourage Terry to have confidence and courage to face Johnny by himself • Charley redeems himself by not killing Terry (and confessing his involvement in ‘fixing’ the boxing matches) • Workers redeem pride in themselves • Redemptive power of love (sibling and romantic)

6. Power and corruption • Power is enforced through fear and violence: those who testify are silenced through threats or murder • “hawks single out pigeons and kill them” • Hierarchy (those in the lodge, the loft and the hold) • Money laundering (criminal activity) • Created demand for work (selection of workers created desperation) • Father Barry and moral righteousness AND the bosses/mafia and their physical power/intimidation • Terry is torn between these powerful forces • Johnny Friendly-the corrupt leader • ‘The man upstairs’ • Terry was corrupted by his relationship with the mob • Father Barry appeals to their sense of right/wrong and takes advantage of their role as victims who are ‘crucified’ • Use of lighting to convey darkness (of the corruption)

7. Loyalty and betrayal • Influences: money, fear, relationships, family, morality • Workers are compelled to be loyal ‘D&D’ because they are controlled by fear • Pigeons used as symbol of loyalty and betrayal • Shifting and conflicting loyalties • Terry’s gestures indicate his internal conflict and reluctance to act (hands in pockets, touching head and chin, eyes) • When Tommy finds out that Terry has testified, he kills the pigeons (belonging to the Golden Warriors) • One message of the film is that betrayal can lead to death • Father Barry is loyal to his faith and his congregation (workers). He realises the importance of being a part of the struggle. • Edie remains loyal throughout the film • Charley does his best to look after Terry • Lack of remorse

8. On the Waterfront Background context Social, cultural values of the production era (and film-maker) How meaning is constructed

9. Background • Post WWII and Great Depression • Produced at the time of America’s “red scare” of the 1950’s (Cold War) • Set on New York’s Docklands (Hoboken, New Jersey) • Longshoremen – dock workers who loaded /unloaded ships’ cargoes. • Documentary style approach (realism of Italian cinema) • The movie reflects an aspect of American life at that time.

10. The film is based on a series of Pulitzer Prize–winning news articles by Malcolm Johnson, published in the New York Sun in 1949. • The articles exposed the murder, extortion and stand-over tactics infesting the docks, which were controlled by the corrupt Longshoremen’s Union. • A Congressional inquiry, like the one in the film, was set up to hear evidence from the dockworkers in an attempt to clean up the waterfront.

11. USA: historical, social, cultural values Patriotism: protecting American values and promoting the ‘American Dream’ • Allegiance to group, trust, loyalty • Personal responsibility, honesty, integrity • Conformity and conservatism • HUAC mandate was to locate and vilify those who were perceived to be a threat to the American way of life • Increasing economic prosperity-manufacturing boom, consumerism, marketing and selling • Hard work; aspiration Morality and Family Values • Obedience to patriarch (and church) • Decency; chastity/purity (restrictive/prudish sexual mores) • Clear division/delineation of gender roles-primacy of the role of homemaker/mother glorified in popular culture (TV/magazines)

12. The American Dream • The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." [Adams,1931 in ‘Epic of America] • A phrase connoting hope for prosperity and happiness, symbolized particularly by having a house of one's own. Possibly applied at first to the hopes of immigrants, the phrase now applies to all except the very rich and suggests a confident hope that one's children's economic and social condition will be better than one's own.

13. USA: social, cultural values • Empire State Building • Build during Great Depression in an attempt to create jobs • Construction was around the clock 24 hours a day.  • To prove to the world that the American workforce and spirit was strong and citizens should not give up hope on America • 102 floors, 18months • Completed in 1931

14. The union movement • Prosperity meant high wages and few labor complaints, depriving unions of the high-profile status they enjoyed in 1930s and 1940s. Also weakening unions was the decrease in blue-collar workers because of the rise of automation and the accompanying increase in white-collar jobs—office employees, managers, salespersons. This loss of blue-collar workers stripped the labor movement of its core influence and contributed to the sharp decline in union membership during the 1950s.

15. USA: social and cultural values • Though 1950s prosperity benefited many Americans, it also obscured widespread poverty. More than one-fifth of the nation lived below the poverty line: some in desolate rural conditions as migrant workers, others in the crowded and dirty slums of American cities. As wealthy whites moved to the suburbs, cities exhausted their funds attempting to provide social services to an increasing number of poor urbanites.

16. USA: social and cultural values • The U.S. population accordingly grew from about 150 million to about 180 million during the 1950s. The baby boom, as this explosion was called, was a product of and a cause for conservative family values—especially about the place of women in American society. • Dr. Benjamin Spock, author of the wildly successful Baby and Child Care (1946), suggested that mothers devote themselves to the full-time care of their children. • Popular culture depicted marriage and feminine domesticity as a primary goal for American women, and the education system reinforced this portrayal.

17. USA: social and cultural values • This revival of domesticity as a social value was accompanied by a revival of religion. • Religious messages began to creep into popular culture as religious leaders became famous faces. • It was during the 1950s that Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

18. Context Cold War, Communism, Kazan and HUAC

19. Cold War and Communism • After World War Two, the United States began to focus on the differences between itself and the Soviet Union (Russia) -  Russia was a Communist country (since 1917) -  USA was capitalist and democratic •  Tensions began to rise in what was known as “The Cold War‟ -  Soviet Union was becoming strong -  China became Communist in 1949 -  By 1950 fear of communism was rife in America

20. Elia Kazan, the film’s director • Kazan, a Communist Party member in his youth, had testified in 1952 to the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Commission) against his peers in the film industry and had been subjected to much contempt and rejection. • Kazan had his own reasons for wanting to tell the story of a courageous whistleblower who risks life and reputation to follow his conscience and give testimony.

21. The Hook • The Great Depression left many Americans wondering about the stability of US policy, and influenced the two men to explore socialist and communist ideologies. After attending some informational meetings, Kazan joined the communist party (and later left); Miller did not join. • Miller and Kazan witnessed mobsters monopolizing jobs on the Jersey docks as workers, desperate for income, were exploited. This served as the inspiration for their collaborative play The Hook, a story about one man’s struggle against injustice on the docks. • Miller and Kazan move to Hollywood, taking their script with them.

22. HUAC hearings • HUAC subpoenaed many actors, screenwriters, and directors to coerce them into informing on their colleagues making public which of their friends now had, or formerly had, any associations with the Communist Party. • HUAC subpoenaed Kazan once, and at his initial hearing he refused to divulge details. • At a second hearing in 1952, however, Kazan chose to give the names of seven former colleagues from his Group Theatre days.

23. Hollywood blacklist • Kazan’s justifications, however, were met with much criticism, particularly from his good friend Arthur Miller, who believed naming names was a betrayal of fellow artists. • Many believe that Miller’s play The Crucible, whose hero (John Proctor) dies rather than accuse people of being witches, represents this view. • On the Waterfront celebrates as a hero a man who informed on mob leaders, and many people believe that Kazan made the film as a response to Miller, and other critics.

24. On The Waterfront • Elia Kazan, recognizing the parallel between himself and John Proctor, had an opportunity to answer back to Miller. • Together with Bud Schulberg, he reworked the script of The Hook into the screenplay for On the Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando. • Brando’s character, Terry, gives a speech at the end of the film in which he justifies his decision to name names. • In The Hook, Terry is beaten to death for his actions, but in On the Waterfront he overcomes his wounds and triumphs. • This film won 8 Oscars and was a huge success.

25. Moral ambiguity of decision to testify • The choice Terry makes to inform on the union officials echoes the choice Elia Kazan made to inform before HUAC on former communists, but Terry achieves results that are far less morally ambiguous than the results Kazan achieved. • Kazan effectively instigated the blacklist of many of his creative, intelligent, and politically active peers. The only loser from Terry’s decision is Johnny Friendly, a merciless bully who clearly deserves what he gets.

26. Elia Kazan and Terry Malloy • Kazan’s testimony allowed him to pursue a directing career undisturbed. However, many of his subsequent films deal with themes similar to those in On the Waterfront. • The recurring themes also suggest that Kazan felt a need to continually assert the right of the individual’s conscience over that of a mob or governmental authority. • At the end of On the Waterfront, Terry is surrounded with people who admire and respect him. His informing has elevated him in the longshoremen’s eyes, and he has no reason to doubt his decision. • Kazan, though he built a successful career, was never fully embraced by Hollywood, and his own decision to inform stranded him in morally ambiguous territory.

27. How meaning is constructed

28. Structure and style • Kazan wanted his directing in On the Waterfront to be invisible so that the actors’ performances could be the focus of the film. Conveys the sense of a community • exhausted, paralysed and rendered fearful by corrupting forces within its midst that have wrested democracy from the grasp of the common people. “It ain’t part of America”. • Samples from film noir-stylistically, but not in terms of narrative elements (no femme fatale or protagonist/hero who knows what he is doing is wrong, but does it anyway)

29. Narrative: Production and Story elements Story elements Production elements Acting Gesture, movement, facial expressions Costume Mise en scene Cinematography Film format Lighting Visual Composition Camera shots and movement Editing Sound Diegetic/non-diegetic • Narrative structure • Characterisation • Appearance, personality, motivation • Setting • Symbols and motifs

30. Two entwined narratives • The love story: Edie goes down to the docks to find out about Joey’s death • Terry’s redemption story begins when he is first attracted to the beautiful, grieving, angry girl. How are they entwined • It takes Edie’s moral strength to draw Terry away from his allegiance to corruption and it takes the sexual attraction between them to draw Edie out of her convent-bred conservatism. • The two main characters are: the flawed young man and the pure, angelic young woman who helps him overcome his doubts and failings to become a hero. • Redemptive power of love

31. The actors’ faces and gestureshelp the viewer to understand the character. • Terry’s stretching of the soft woollenglove onto his rough workman’s hand as he walks with Edie in the park teases her yet shows his fascination with her • Terry’s gentle turning aside of the gun Charley pulls on him in the taxi expresses everything that is needed about the love between the brothers • the confusion and misery on Terry’s face as he talks to Edie in the pub reveal the internal struggle of this inarticulate character

32. Mise-en-scene • Mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. • The “mise-en-scène”, along with the cinematography and editing of a film, influence the verisimilitude of a film in the eyes of its viewers. • The various elements of design help express a film’s vision by generating a sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood, and sometimes suggesting a character’s state of mind. • “Mise-en-scène” also includes the composition, which consists of the positioning and movement of actors, as well as objects, in the shot.

33. Cinematography: black-and-white film format • Black-and-white photography gives a stark presentation of the dirty tenements and the treacherous docks • Shadowy tenement buildings and laneways seem to close in around the characters, who are trapped in their narrow lives, and • The sharp vertical lines of cranes and staircases hint at the dangers that await them. Contrasting with this darkness is the expansive rooftop, open to the sky, Terry’s place of refuge.

34. Lighting • In certain scenes, the film samples heavily from the film noir genre.

35. Lighting • Artificial lighting is used to illuminate Edie’s hair, creating a halo effect and emphasizing her angelic personality.

36. Visual Composition • The shape, size and positioning of buildings, objects and people within the frame conveys meaning • Take note of where the main character is located and what appears in the background/foreground of the frame

37. Visual Composition In the foreground, the pile of rocks forms a pyramid shape, with Terry and Edie at the pinnacle (top of the pile). In the background, we see the skyline of NYC, partially obscured by fog, with the Empire State Building directly behind Terry. The visual composition of this shot reflects the distant and elusive promise of the American Dream.

38. Camera angle • High angle shots are used to show vulnerability, a loss or lack of power and sense of that character being intimidated, dominated, overwhelmed or undermined

39. Camera shots and movement • After Terry and the mob leader brawl on the waterfront, Terry is badly injured and struggles to remain conscious. In a final show of defiance against the mafia leaders, Terry staggers to his feet and walks into the dock with his fellow longshoreman workers. To instill the scope of Terry’s determination, the camera frequently cuts from a medium close-up of Terry stumbling toward the loading dock to a POV shot of his perspective. Imitating Terry’s experience, the shaky camera wildly rattles around, going in and out of focus and cutting to shots of Terry walking along the waterfront.

40. Camera shots and movement • Mid-shots and medium close ups are used during conversations between two characters; or to depict emotions of one character while showing them in a particular setting

41. Camera shots and movement • Close-ups are used to convey intense emotions and emphasise dialogue. • Tight framing can also reflect the tension between characters or a character’s internal struggle.

42. Camera shots and movement • Extreme close-ups are rarely used, so when they appear in a film, this is an indication that the message is significant. • The tight-framing (generally a part of a character’s body) signifies intensity of emotion, or it may be used to emphasise a symbol/motif (in this case, Edie’s woolen gloves).

43. Kazan makes use of symbolismSymbols are objects, characters, figures, or colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Clothes represent qualities of their wearers • The windbreaker that is passed from Joey to KO to Terry connects its wearer to the struggle for justice. • The fine, warm overcoats of the Union bosses show their swaggering prosperity, • while the workers’ poverty is apparent as they shiver in shabby jackets.

44. Kazan makes use of symbolism The prize fight that Terry has lost, and that still rankles him, foreshadows his taking on the Union, with even higher stakes and a second chance to ‘be somebody’. Empire state building -Across the Hudson, the Empire State Building looms like the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz, distant and strange. It represents dreams and a different life, yet it’s always glimpsed through a fog. Its sleek jutting frame contrasts dramatically with the ramshackle rooftops of Hoboken, with their discolored patches and mismatched roof levels. The Hudson River - separates Hoboken, New Jersey, from New York City. Manhattan may as well be a thousand miles away, since the Manhattan life the longshoremen imagine is so different from daily life on the waterfront. The river is a border, an edge that the longshoremen will never be able to cross.

45. Symbols & Motifs: Pigeons The pigeons are cooped up in a cage. They’re fragile. Their natural impulse is to fly, but they’ve been trained not to. In many ways, the pigeons represent Terry Malloy.

46. Symbols & Motifs: Pigeons and rooftops Though he’s a tough former boxer, his excessive care for these birds indicates a special affinity between them. The imagery of him actually inside the cage himself, evident when he tends the birds, suggests this affinity as well. Malloy is a dreamer, a delicate and sensitive man, and much of the conversation that he has with Edie about hawks and pigeons can be translated into words about each other. In many ways, Malloy essentially is a pigeon—that is, he appears on the rooftopsand on the street. He is rarely shown inside.

47. Symbols & Motifs: Pigeons and rooftops The pigeons also have a negative connotation: stool pigeon, a slang term used to describe informers. Every time a character uses the term stool pigeon or its abbreviation, stoolie, Terry Malloy’s conflict boils to the surface. The rooftops symbolise freedom, a yearning to rise above the crime and corruption on the streets.

48. Symbols & Motifs: Hooks • The sharp metallic hooks that the longshoremen use to help them load and empty pallets hang over their shoulders menacingly. • These hooks represent the forces that literally hang over them in the form of Johnny Friendly’s goons. Over the course of the film, Terry, Dugan, Luke, and many other longshoremen have the hawk-like talon of the hook pressing against their chests.

49. Symbols & Motifs: Mesh • The wire netting initially separates Edie from, placing her outside his world. In this scene, he gently gives her a pigeon egg, through the mesh. Symbolically, this signals the start of their relationship.

50. Symbols & Motifs: Fences • Fences serve as barriers, to keep characters within the confines of their environment, adding to the restrictive atmosphere. • The wrought iron bars of this fence take on the appearance of prison bars.