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On The Waterfront Film Analysis

Decent Essays

A few years before the release of On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954), the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated alleged Communists in Hollywood. Among those under investigation, Elia Kazan elected to release names of others involved in the same movement (Neve 66). This event sparked intense controversy in Hollywood, and it forced the people he uncovered to either release more names or be blacklisted from filmmaking. Through an early example of film authorship, Kazan was able to relate scenes throughout the movie to his personal experiences with HUAC. Within the Classic Hollywood Narrative, Kazan’s directorial creativity allows him to develop his ideas through the typical structure and expand his deeper thoughts through the allegory of the waterfront. A majority of the film stays within the Classic Narrative Style, but some scenes will venture outside the realm of the typical structure. While scenes throughout the movie may or may not follow the narrative, they are specifically created to tell a deeper story in relation to the movie’s plot and Kazan’s life. …show more content…

Moments before the murder, Terry returns one of Doyle’s lost birds, and as he releases the bird to fly back to the cage on the roof, the camera pans upward as the movie shifts into the rising action. Through the use of the film’s plot, Kazan began his allegory of the waterfront with the death of Joey Doyle. The audience sees that Terry loathes his responsibility in the previous action, and Kazan, as a film author, is relating this scene to his life in the HUAC trials. While he reported names of other active Communists, Kazan could have struggled with intense inner-conflict, as he understood the outcome of his decision. He is stating that judgment on other individuals should not be done without careful considerations of each person’s

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