Marlon’s Mao: Part Three

On The Waterfront!

Hmmm …

As Hamlet says, mortality “must give us pause”.

Therefore, “Hmmmm ….. “

On what must be my tenth viewing of that American masterpiece, I realized how tragically prophetic it has proven to be.

What inspired Elia Kazan  and Budd Schulberg to collaborate in recording what is still The Great American Tragedy?

On The Waterfront is clearly a heroic drama, not a tragedy, with a thrillingly courageous victory for its hero in the end.

What makes it a possible tragedy now?

The testimony Kazan gave to the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming members of the American Communist Party with which he had participated in meetings, not only branded him as a “stool pigeon”, stigmatized him like Brando’s Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront, but, in addition, has grown over the years to carry a tragic foresight within it. (more…)