On the Waterfront, Mare

The famous line “I coulda (or could’ve) been a contenda (or contender),” stoned me to my soul last night while watching On the Waterfront for the first time. I didn’t know that the line came from this film, and a friend of mine used it last week while at lunch. Maybe it’s synchronicity, so I better write about it. The 1954 masterpiece written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan features Marlon Brando, who plays an ex-boxer turned longshoreman.

Marlon Brando looked like a former prize fighter in On the Waterfront.

(Spoiler Alert) Brando (Terry Malloy) plays such a noble character that embodies not only masculinity but also human integrity. He comes so full-circle in character by the end of the thing that the film is its own reward. That’s why I have no disagreements with its 99% Rotten Tomato score nor feel at all sheepish about labeling it a masterpiece.

Last week I watched East of Eden starring James Dean. I mention this because the Steinbeck novel adaptation was also directed by Elia Kazan. I’d never watched a James Dean movie before, unfortunately. He was great! I made my wife watch a few minutes. Dean reminded her of Brad Pitt. I kind of totally agree. He’s very fluid, at least here, an aggressive close-talker like Pitt in Fight Club or Snatch maybe.

James Dean was animated in East of Eden.

Plus, if you want to see the iconic hipster in action, East of Eden is perhaps the way to go since Dean says nearly every other line. Not to mention a pretty awesome story. I would like to read the novel one day since The Grapes of Wrath (also Steinbeck) was a pretty fantastic novel that I finished reading back in early November.

By the way, both of these these classic American movies are available on The Criterion Channel. I discovered it on my Roku about a month ago and couldn’t be happier. When I was an undergrad and even more delusional than I am today, I admired the Criterion group so much I used to say that I’d purchase the whole collection on DVD if I won the lottery. Now here it is on one streaming channel for me to afford monthly. Hashtag blessed.

Needless to say I abandoned the Iron Fist series on Netflix immediately for my newfound movie option when my wife falls asleep from now on.

Now, as for viewing that my wife stays awake for . . . we recently watched Mare of Easttown together. Boy, what a wonderful little miniseries that turned out to be! I was utterly impressed with the mystery of it all. The red herrings were thrown at me constantly. I didn’t figure it all out until it was told in plain English to the audience at the end (I didn’t try very hard). Wink.

But I thought it was wonderful and really wish there were more mainstream dramas written with the same effort. So, thanks to Director Craig Zobel and writer/creator Brad Inglesby for being extra awesome. And to Kate Winslet for crushing it as former high school basketball star turned detective Mare Sheehan.

If I could critique one aspect of the series though it would be that I’ll admit I had to lend a greater-than-usual suspension of disbelief towards (spoiler alert) why Erin the victim of the crime (Cailee Spaeny) was the way she was. Maybe I’m just naive, and it’s supernormal for a teenage girl to want to have an affair with her uncle (and vice versa). But I don’t think so. Regardless of my cynicism it was all quite creepy.

Thanks for reading! Happy viewing, cinephile!