On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront is a 1954 award-winning crime film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Fred Gwynne, and Leif Erickson. I watched it on HBO Max.

trailer:

 

Film Site opens its article with this:

On the Waterfront (1954) is a classic, award-winning, controversial film directed by Elia Kazan - a part drama and part gangster film. The authentic-looking, powerful film is concerned with the problems of trade unionism, corruption and racketeering. And it is set on New York's oppressive waterfront docks, where dock workers struggled for work, dignity, and to make ends meet under the control of hard-knuckled, mob-run labor unions that would force them to submit to daily 'shape-ups' by cruel hiring bosses.

Roger Ebert has it on his Great Movies list and notes this as background information: "This was the film made in 1954 by Elia Kazan after he agreed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, named former associates who were involved with the Communist Party and became a pariah in left-wing circles." The Hollywood Reporter in a review from the film's release concludes a glowing review with this: "This is one of the year’s important films." Variety has a positive review. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 99%.