On the Waterfront

 

               

          Trying to find movies I haven't touched in my 38 years of existence, and well, it does occur to me that I haven't seen any of Marlon Brando's earlier films. Granted, a lot of this must go to my brother's credit for many reasons once I told him of many movies I haven't seen well, the rest you'll figure out. On the Waterfront is Marlon Brando's first of two Academy Awards, furthermore, launched his career into high standards. The funny thing about this movie is, browsing through the movie on Wikipedia is a huge story about McCarthyism for which I don't know how this has anything to do with communism hell, not to go in so much detail but the way I got out of this movie was that it's all about corruption as well as faith and justice. 

          Dockworker Terry Mallory (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger).

           What I like most about the movie and this was coming into at least fifteen minutes into the movie is that the film was made for only 910,000 dollars, though sure back then it's a typical big budget but if you make this film now it's mostly nothing compared to making movies right now. Moreover what struck me more about the film was it's real locations in fact majority of the film was shot in Hoboken, New Jersey, but getting to the point when you see real locations at times on film in the thirties, forties or fifties it almost feels like they only shoot at local studio lots and the only time you see real locations are either in westerns back when they were making cowboy films or The Third Man staring Orson Wells. And so, with this movie it feels like a real city their shooting at including the docks of the harbor as well and even the church for which I liked about the movie mainly because it's really the trend of one director making a film work where the actors are making the film believable. The most important thing in what makes this film great is that you see Marlon Brando's rise to stardom in this film, and he really does a fantastic job in this film as well as being the lead in what lead to his rise to fame and the interesting thing about the filming, is that Brando's mother had recently died furthermore he had to go into therapy to resolve his issues with his parents so, when you watch the movie through, you can see the pain and emotion he's bringing through the course of the film. The other thing in what makes the films great to watch is not only just Marlon Brando is that they have acquired a bunch of talented actors in the supporting roles like Lee J. Cobb who I remember seeing 12 Angry Men, and he played the last guy to say not guilty and Karl Madden who played the abusive father to Anthony Perkins in Fear Strikes Out and I thought his performance was great because he's doing everything to give faith to the people about the corruption in their town as well as convincing Brando's character to not use violence but give faith by testifying against Cobb's character. I would most certainly recommend, for everyone to watch one of Marlon Brando's earlier works but more importantly shows a ton of themes of corruption and crime as well as Christianity blending through the course of the movie. Furthermore, whenever I see a movie that has a low budget and depends on talented actors, I'm always intrigued in seeing films like On the Waterfront.

          

60th Anniversary of The Sound of Music

 

           Well believe it friends, the impossible has happened. The Sound of Music has just reached its sixtieth birthday. And I got to tell you, the more these classic movies get older the more I start to realize how much I'm getting older. If I had to pick at least one movie/musical in my mom and dad's all-time favorite movie/musicals of all time it would most certainly be The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews fresh off her success in Mary Poppins and another up and coming actor, Christopher Plummer for which you'd be surprised in terms of how young he was in the mid-sixties. So, everyone, let's all grab our guitars, play clothes as well as find the nearest mountain we can climb and together, we'll solve the great unsolved mystery in "How do you solve the problem like Maria".

           Based on the real-life story of the Von Trapp family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie Andrews plays the role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed navel captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

           The movie is based off the memoir of real-life Maria Von Trapp, who published the book around 1949, to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband in 1947. Through the course, Hollywood producers hounded interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told. Amid 1956, Paramount purchased the US rights, and while the film was going through a stressful negotiation, producers approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to compose one song for the movie. But the composers felt differently about the idea furthermore offered producers to write a new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed a recent project. The producers (hopefully Paramount) agreed with the terms for which leads to both men creating a Stage Musical to the Sound of Music for which led to a ton of Tony awards including Best Musical. Sadly though, Paramount's plans fell through and in June of 1960, Twentieth Century-Fox purchasing the film adaption rights to the stage musical and the rest became history. The smartest thing Fox at the time did was hire one of the directors of West Side Story, Robert Wise to direct Sound of Music, in which I almost envision a water cooler moment were everyone in charge of the movie are just like "hey, how about hiring the guy who won best director for West Side Story", "Who? Jerome Robbins", "No, Robert Wise", though a long story indicating Robbins being fired and Wise taking over. The surprising factor is that a lot of the movie was shot first in the studios in Los Angeles and then went to Salzburg, Austria where a lot of the filming was done so, basically all the scenes from Maria's bedroom and the Abbey cloister and the graveyard were all filmed at 20th Century Fox studios. It's been close to fifteen years since I sat down and watched West Side Story, but deep down if I had to choose which musical to watch that Wise directed, I wouldn't hesitate in picking The Sound of Music, mainly because this film is an iconic film moreover Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest achievement in film adaption, though sure West Side Story for sure has great imagery as well as scenery in terms of the color and more importantly staging the musical numbers but at the end of the day West Side Story is a modern day telling of Romeo and Juliet and it's tragic so, who wants to watch a movie especially when one of them dies, sorry not sorry but here's the thing Tony dies at the end which in all Musical standards that's just eh. But with Sound of Music you have a great director who knows how to make movies as well as being able to put the camera where the right shot would look and feel great at especially when you see some of the wide angle shots they look incredible when it blends with the performances and dances, and even when we get to the helicopter shots in like the opening scene when you first see Julie Andrews character and she does her infamous twirl, now I can guarantee they hand to zoom in because they didn't want to have the chopper be blowing the grass and yet I don't know how they were able to pull that off and yet, still looks amazing at the same time. But more importantly it also has suspense by the midst of the third act where you feel worried for the family and the standoff is great even though I remember seeing this movie for a thousand times. Look deep down there's nothing to say about the cast especially Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, like these two are amazing actors and actresses that after this movie they become living legends. I even love the puppy dog love between Charmain Carr and Daniel Truhitte who plays Liesl Von Trapp and Rolfe I mean their performance of is always puts a smile. In all my Childhood memories, I grew up with musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis and then watch other Rogers and Hammerstein films like Oklahoma and South Pacific for which I may have to look into those films because it's been quite a long time for those movies, but I have to say that The Sound of Music for me is the one of the greatest of all musicals and I may be talking crazy in saying Sound of Music is better than Wizard of Oz but granted I haven't thought out my top five greatest musicals of all Time. Though there's something special of Sound of Music that puts a smile on your face from beginning to the very end of the final frame, and I watched forty minutes of Hamilton with my niece and I'd feel like Musicals now aren't the same so thank God for these movies like The Sound of Music where we can begin watching the film and it still stands the test of time and so, sixty years, time well tested for The Sound of Music.