On The Waterfront (23)

I would like to start by admitting that I now have the biggest crush on Marlon Brando. I know he died in 2004, but I really wish I was a couple generations younger! The entire time I was watching this I was planning a more modern re-do of it in my mind.

Anyway, On The Waterfront (1954) was another one of the movies that I've been putting off because I didn't think it would be good, and lo and behold, it is another one of my favorites. It's hard to come up with an actual reason why this made the top 100, but I can completely understand why it did. My only two complaints were (1) the music was much too "big" in many of the scenes. The music seemed to be what you would expect a huge finale to play, when the scene itself wasn't even that pivotal to the plot of the movie. It made you feel like the movie was about to end for no reason. (2) I did not feel that there needed to be a pigeon massacre. That made me very sad and a little uncomfortable. My sadness isn't just for the death of the birds (which I will ASSUME were props) but because of the way it so deeply effected Terry (Brando). I suppose maybe that was partly the point, but I didn't like it at all and wish that hadn't been in the movie. Why couldn't the kid have just released them all?
Besides that, the movie was just a really great mob movie. I loved that the lead female was so sweet and innocent and that she fell for the bad guy. A classic mob; good girl likes tough guy; little people standing up for themselves; bad guys getting the justice kind of movie!