On the Waterfront

by Budd Schulberg

Building on his Academy Award-winning screenplay of the classic film, Budd Schulberg's On the Waterfront is the story of ex-prizefighter Terry Malloy's valiant stand against corruption on the New Jersey docks. It generates all the power, grittiness, and truth of that great production, but goes beyond it in set and setting. It is a novel of strength and fallibility, of hope and defeat, of love and betrayal. In his Introduction, Mr. Schulberg writes: "The film's concentration on a single dominating character, brought close to the camera eye, made it esthetically inconvenient, if not impossible, to set Terry's story in its social and historical perspective suggesting the knotted complexities of the world of the waterfront that loops around New York."

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Crime, Plays, Film

2 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Budd Schulberg (1914–2009) was a screenwriter, novelist, and journalist who is best remembered for the classic novels What Makes Sammy Run?, The Harder They Fall, and the story On the Waterfront, which he adapted as a novel, play, and an Academy Award–winning film script. Born in New York City, Schulberg grew up in Hollywood, where his father, B. P. Schulberg, was head of production at Paramount, among other studios. Throughout his career, Schulberg worked as a journalist and essayist, often writing about boxing, a lifelong passion. Many of his writings on the sport are collected in Sparring with Hemingway (1995). Other highlights from Schulberg’s nonfiction career include Moving Pictures (1981), an account of his upbringing in Hollywood, and Writers in America (1973), a glimpse of some of the famous novelists he met early in his career. He died in 2009.

Reviews

[Nat K · Rating 5 out of 5]

” ‘You don’t understand!’ Terry cried out again,’ I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody. Instead of a bum, which is what I am. Oh yes, I am.’ ”

Sometimes I surprise myself with how oblivious I can be. The movie is a favourite of mine. How can you not immediately think of Marlon Brando, or not be awed each time you hear him utter the above infamous words. Alas, poor Terry Malloy. I’d always wanted to read the book, but I had no idea that it evolved after both the screenplay and the movie. How have I been on the planet for this long and not known this?

First published in 1955. Think on this. The writing is vibrant and involves you in the story. It’s vivid. There’s always a pulse of something menacing underlying the lives of the characters, the life of the city, the life of the harbour. On The Waterfront is just as valid now as it was when it was written. It retains its urgency and its message. And it got me thinking, has anything really changed all that much?

The background is that Budd Schulberg read a few investigative articles about corruption on the docks, and wanted to give this topic wider coverage. In the introduction to the book, he tells of how he spent years absorbing the New York waterfront. Immersed in the lives of the longshore families."...becoming an habituée of the Manhattan and Jersey bars that were the unofficial headquarters, or homes away from home, for waterfront racketeers and Irish and Italian 'insoigents' alike, drinking beer and talking into the night.."

On the waterfront. Life’s tough, but there are a few little enticements on the side, for those lucky enough know the right people. Or be willing to turn a blind eye.

But some people can’t do that. Young Jimmy Doyle “...fell offa roof…" for daring to voice that unions should be for the workers, not for the fat cats skimming the cream from running the wharves. Terry Malloy is the decoy that unwittingly contributes to his demise. Charley Malloy is his older brother and the right hand man of the union boss. Katie Doyle is his distraught sister. Father Peter Barry attends to Jimmy’s last rites and despairs of his flock.

" 'It happens, kid,' Charley said philosophically.
'I know, I know. I just wanna get some air,' Terry said, ashamed to be caught soft in front of Charley."

Just another day on the waterfront. A world within a world, a microcosm.

"An anthropologist could have studied this waterfront as if it were an island cultures in the South Pacific with its special mores and taboos...there was no stronger taboo than the silence of dockmen not only with law enforcers and outsiders, but even with their womenfolk."

The Crime Commission is a looming shadow that’s looking over the shoulder of the workings of the docks. The bosses are starting to sweat. Will anyone have the guts to “squeal”.

You’ve gotta love the names of the folk in this book. Johnny Friendly (oh, the irony!), The Gent, Big Mac, Specs Flavin, Runty Nolan, Mutt Murphy, Moose McGonigle, Pop Doyle. The names describing their personalities to a tee.

I loved the characters. They’re real, and they show the good and bad side of all us. Our hopes, dreams and desperation. How far we can be pushed. And how we bounce off each other like atoms, and who knows what explosions this can create.

Conscience is the word that kept coming up in my head while reading this. That niggling voice. Would you act on it or quell it? This book brought up so many questions for me. How willing would you be to fight for your convictions? Would it be worth losing your life over? If you keep your mouth firmly shut and go with the flow - even though your thoughts are buzzing loudly - do you have less integrity than someone who sticks their neck out for their beliefs?

Does walking away make you complicit when things aren't right.

Perhaps there is something in the mantra of the “Three Wise Monkeys” (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil). This book certainly shows the characters grappling with these various parts of their personality.

This book is gritty and harsh. It’s complex. Some people are able to live with the status quo. To not rock the boat. Others struggle with it. They can’t look the other way. It doesn’t pretty up the reality of life dockside. It is what it is.

There are so many tense moments in this book. I thought I loved the movie, but this goes to show how much further you can delve into the storyline and the thoughts and struggles of the characters via a book. For me, Father Barry’s character made an impression. Growing up in the slums dockside, he joined the ministry not just to save souls but to serve his community. To see positive change happen, to help set it in motion. And he certainly got more than he bargained for.

And what can I say about Terry Malloy that hasn’t already been said. A bit of a no-hoper. A would’ve been boxing talent if not for match fixes. Drifting, brooding. No vision or path or plan. Perhaps his one true love are his racing pigeons, and boy, the pigeon is used heavily as a symbol in this book. Events cause Terry to “think”. Something he’s never had to do before, and isn’t comfortable having to do now. All tied in with a conscience he never knew he had. Life was so much simpler when he could pick up a job here and there, a bit of beer money, have a bit of fun, shoot some pool, watch a fight, enjoy a broad’s company for the night. But this thinking business was tough. Realising that actions have implications. And that to not make a decision is a decision in itself. His character devastated me.

The writing is so damn good, and it just gets better as the chapters fly past. You can feel the menace of so many forces that hurtle the characters into situations and decisions they never dreamt they’d have to face. And wished they didn’t have to.

I thought long and hard after reading this. I realised there are no easy answers. Just as perhaps there are no easy questions. Yes, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this was written in 1955. It blows me away how the themes in it remain both current and valid. Pick an industry. Any industry. It seems the bottom line is that cash will always be king, greed is queen, and the joke's on us. Human nature doesn't seem to change that much at all. Though there'll always be a Joey Doyle. A Runty Nolan. A Peter Barry. And a Terry Malloy. Ah...Terry.

This is an absolute classic with a capital “C”. Definitely 5 stars. It can’t be anything less.

*** Buddy read with Bill (waves). He brought some interesting discussion to the table about his Grandpa’s life, and the events he lived through. Similar to the ones in this book. Which always makes me think the saying “Life is stranger than fiction” is oh so true.

We also had great discussions about the characters in the book. Why I felt sorry for some and not others. Yet they grew up in the same neighbourhood. Stuff I hadn't considered. Please stop by and read Bill's review, as he's picked up on many nuances that I didn't. The link to his review is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ***

[Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marlon you didn't do it justice.

I've always said that my favorite movie was "On The Waterfront" and Brando was my favorite actor and they still are but after reading the book I can only say that they didn't come close to the book. There was much more to the Terry Malone character; Carl Malden never came close to Father Barry. The book made you understand the NY - NJ waterfront in the early 50's. The characters were all larger than life in the book, in the movie not so much. Read the book and see if you agree.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the Waterfront - The Screenplay by Budd Schulberg, Malcolm Johnson and Robert Siodmak – another look at this film is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/o...

10 out of 10





On the Waterfront is not just a fabulous motion picture, it is a classic, analyzed in series like American Cinema, with many books dedicated to a masterpiece directed by Elia Kazan – a phenomenal director, with issues



At the Academy Awards where he was honored for his extraordinary cinematic activity, some of the audience stood up, applauding and cheering, while a good number of the attendees sat and watched with hostility

You could watch Trumbo http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/t... with Bryan Cranston to get an idea about the days when writers, actors have been blacklisted



Before mentioning another film on the same subject, let us talk spoiler alert, disclaimer and warn you off these lines, which are flawed, irrelevant, thus you could not accuse the under signed of spam, or anything

This has happened some time ago, and one of my blissful contributions has been deleted, because somebody reported it as spam – presumably due to the habit of jumping off subject – this would be spurious now



Guilty by Suspicion http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/8... is the other movie that looks at the days of the Black List, with Robert De Niro in the title role, and we see how awful the period could be

Elia Kazan was somehow on the side of the anti-communists, in other words, in the good camp – we have had communism here, and we know that it brings hell, however much they talk about workers ‘paradise



Only the camp that fought communism descended into exaggerations, then vendettas, and ended up punishing innocent people, or those who just entertained some leftish views when they were young and dreamy

Oppenheimer http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/o... is the best film of the year, although we will have to see Maestro, premiering just two days from now on Netflix



Actually, by the time this will be posted (due to the backlog of exquisite notes, it will be in two weeks’ time, which means in 2024) Maestro will have been there for some time and enchanted the audiences around the globe

Oppenheimer has also been the victim of purges, and those at the Academy Awards that decided not to honor Kazan were protesting against his activities in real life, not the work in filmmaking, which has been resplendent



Intellectuals http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/i... by Paul Johnson is a magnum opus, looking at the lives of Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, and Jean- Jacques Rousseau…

Great minds, but awful humans, at least at times, and we could conclude that when gifted in the extreme on one count, a human being appears to lack resources in another department, up to a point anyway…



Marlon Brando has the leading role here, and I have read in the gospel of cinema, Adventures in the Screen Trade http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/a... by William Goldman about it

Through his absence, Montgomery Clift has launched the career of Marlon Brando (and that of James Dean and Paul Newman) who shines and dazzles as the ex-fighter Terry Malloy, who belongs to the mob, initially



However, he meets Edie Doyle, played by the fantastic Eva Marie Saint, present in other classics, like North By Northwest, a stupendous thespian that told the makers of American Cinema that she took her children with her, when filming

Edie’s brother has been killed by the mobsters led by Johnny Friendly, and his right hand man, Charley Malloy, Terry’s brother, portrayed by the fantastic Rod Steiger – winner of the Oscar for In The Heat of The Night, and the one with the highest Kevin Bacon quotient, the indicator of most connected actor



Eventually, prompted by father Father Barry aka astounding Karl Malden (he works with Marlon Brando on another classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, the famous ‘Stella’ shout made it again on the screen in a Seinfeld episode) and Edie confronts the mobster who will have ordered the killing of Charley and a couple of other men, in order to keep his power and money, but the result of the clash is for you to discover…



Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se



As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dock Workers.

Life is harsh working on the docks where people are poor and working as a dock worker is the only job that pays. A mob controls the union and who gets the jobs. On The waterfront is about the people who work there where their lives happen in slums. Most are Irish and priests and the Catholic church is powerful as well. Most priests seem to be part of the corruption in society. In this backdrop three people stand out, a father who tries to stem the corruption, a young man on the verge of being s mobster and a young woman whose family has paid for Catholic boarding school to keep her away but now has chosen to live with them. The novel is more general than the movie and the three characters aren't as much as a primary focus. Still very interesting.

[Paolo del ventoso Est · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una storia drammatica ed appassionante, con un finale di amara bellezza.
La redenzione dell'ex pugile Terry Malloy (che nell'immaginazione di qualunque lettore non può che avere le palpebre gonfie, le labbra carnose e la chioma brillantinata del giovane Marlon Brando) è toccante nella sua verosimiglianza; nessuna luce mistica, nessun gesto teatralmente eroico, solo una deposizione contro il muro dell'omertà.
I fili che reggono questa storia - nata come una sceneggiatura, il romanzo è stato infatti 'confezionato' dopo il celeberrimo film del '54 - sono mossi dalle abili mani di Budd Schulberg, autore piuttosto trascurato nel panorama della letteratura americana. La cupa atmosfera del porto, tra lo scampanìo, le sirene e lo strillo dei gabbiani, nasconde l'inestirpabile cancro della mafia che tiene sotto controllo lavoratori e sindacati, ed un pesante silenzio grava sulle morti "misteriose" di chi ha avuto il coraggio di ribellarsi.
La violenza qui non si traveste, come spesso accade, da paladina vendicatrice; il linguaggio della rissa si confonde con quello del whisky, le botte e le botti parlano irlandese e italiano, e non vi è proprio nulla di eroico. Il pestaggio è il minore dei mali, le teste sono sufficentemente dure per reggerlo, a Bohegan si teme di finire in un barile di calce e lasciare quattro cinque figli senza pane.
Nella rude semplicità degli scaricatori emerge la figura di padre Pete Barry, prete fumatore che apprezza la birra e non disdegna qualche ceffone redentore (nel film ha il nasone fumettistico di Karl Malden); potrebbe sembrare un 'personaggio' costruito, ma dannazione non lo è affatto.
Padre Barry porta alta la lampada di una Chiesa che non è la ferrea istituzione di Clongowes (v. Joyce) nè la molle teologia dei Naphta (v. Mann) o peggio le sinistre trame alla Dan Brown; è quella Chiesa discreta ed operosa di cui si parla meno, quella coraggiosa che abbiamo conosciuto in don Pino Puglisi, ammazzato dalla mafia nel '93.
Così il fronte compatto del silenzio si sgretola in un discorso che fa fremere le corde del cuore, l'urlo di sdegno di padre Barry davanti al cadavere di Runty Nolan. Due pagine che mozzano il fiato.
Finale amarissimo, tragicamente reale. Condanne ridicole, un colpo di spugna giudiziario rivergina le peggiori fedine.
Eppure, le grida dei morti continuano ad assordare, in un coro unanime con quelle di chi rimane ed ha imparato a respingere la ciotola del padrone.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The audiobook edition I listened to was the full-cast recording of the play "On the Waterfront" by the LA Theater Workshop. The story is probably familiar to most, since it's based on a Pulitzer Prize winning story about racketeering, corruption, and union violence among longshoremen on the docks in the New York City region.

It was also made into an Oscar winning movie in 1954, starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint. I've never seen the movie, but was familiar with the iconic line of the main character Terry Malone, "I coulda been a contender". Malone, a longshoreman working the docks controlled by a corrupt union boss, inadvertently lures a co-worker to a meeting with union thugs where he's murdered for meeting with a crime commission investigating union corruption. Union bosses then worry that Terry may also talk to investigators, and send Terry's brother Charley to convince Terry to keep quiet. That meeting ends in failure, and leads to the dramatic ending most are familiar with.

The audiobook was extremely well done, and was a quick (less than 2 hour) listen.

[Robert Carraher · Rating 5 out of 5]

No discussion of On the Waterfront, the novel, can be undertaken without at least mention of the movie. The book was highly praised when it was released in 1955, a year after the film received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. On its own, the novels was a best seller.


Originally, the book was titled just Waterfront, it was no simple novelization of the film, “that bastard word for a bastard byproduct of Hollywood success”, as Budd Schulberg states in his Introduction in the 1987 edition. The book was compared to the works of Émile Zola and Theodore Dreiser by the critics because of its use of the ‘naturalist style’. The naturalist school featured detailed realism, that in this case, suggested that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping the characters that populate the book. The critics, after all the awards, praise and kudos the film received, were surprised that there was still so much to say than a 90 minute movie could suggest.

Originally inspired by a 24-part series of articles in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson, titled "Crime on the Waterfront," Budd Schulberg wrote a long piece for The Saturday Evening Post, titled “Father John Knows The Score”. Schulberg took an unorthodox approach to writing the screenplay by not spending a month or two, but literally years absorbing the unique atmosphere of the New York Waterfront. He hung out at the westside Manhattan and Jersey bars that were the unofficial headquarters of the waterfront racketeers and Irish and Italian “insoigents”. He spent nights drinking beer with longshore families in their $26.50 a month railroad flats. Along the way he interviewed longshore-union leaders and the outspoken labor priests from St. Xavier’s in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, one of which the book is dedicated to; Father John Corridan described as “a rangy, ruddy, fast-talking, chain-smoking, tough-minded, sometimes profane Kerryman”. A welcome antidote to the stereotypical Barry Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby “Fah-ther” that Hollywood was so fond of. Father Corridan’s speech was a unique blend of Hell’s Kitchen and baseball slang and he expressed an encyclopedic knowledge of waterfront economics and man’s inhumanity to man. This maverick priest was the Father John of Schulberg’s article for The Saturday Evening Post. Schulberg was surprised to find that just a few blocks west of comfortable watering holes like Sardi’s there was this entire world that the rest of Manhattan didn’t know existed.

Schulberg’s ‘escort’ or protector and his cover was one of Father John’s most staunch adherents, Little Arthur Browne, Brownie as he was known. Brownie was one of the standup “insoigents” in the Chelsea local run by the fat cats and their “pistoleros.” Brownie was probably the model for Runty Nolan of the book and Kayo Duggan of the film. Browne had been beaten up, had his nose flattened by “the cowboys” – the local union enforcers – been thrown through a skylight and even tossed in the river unconscious, all things that Runty endures in the book. Schulberg got most of the local dialect that he would write into the screenplay as well as the novel during Runty and his forays into the local bars which were, in places, ten to a block.


“On The Waterfront” Official TrailerSchulberg had discussed with director Elia Kazan his research into the waterfront, and Kazan urged him to write a screenplay, which was thrown back in Schulberg and Kazan’s faces by one of Hollywood’s leading moguls. So, he set out after this to write a novel when some smarter Hollywood mogul accepted the screenplay. The film was made, after a few changes to the script, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. The film was an astounding success. Filmed over 36 days on location in various places in Hoboken, New Jersey, including the docks, workers' slum dwellings, bars, littered alleys and rooftops. Furthermore, some of the labor bosses goons in the film – Abe Simon as Barney, Tony Galento as Truck and Tami Mauriello as Tullio – were actual former professional heavyweight boxers. Terry Malloy's (Brando's) fight against corruption was in part modeled after whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony DiVincenzo, who testified before a real-life Waterfront Commission on the facts of life on the Hoboken Docks and had suffered a degree of ostracism for his deed.

The historical context of the film and the book are rooted in the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) which was established from the ashes of 19th century labor unions that organized dockworkers. In 1895, the ILA grew to adopt the Chicago (Great Lakes) Longshoremen’s Union ideals as a model and encompassed all of the U.S. and many Canadian longshoremen. By the turn of the 20th Century they became affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). By 1916, the ILA had become based in The Port of New York, which took in all of the harbor shore, including New Jersey. In 1918 Joseph Ryan became the president of the ILA's "Atlantic Coast District." Joseph Ryan was elected International president in 1927 and it is him that the character of “Weeping” Willie Givens is based. Under Ryan’s leadership, the ILA had become corrupt and was affiliated with Mafia characters such as Albert Anastasia and the Irish gangs. By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader of the ILA, controlling six union local chapters in Brooklyn. The character of Tom McGovern in the film and movie were modeled on the mobster Anastasia and the like, and Anastasia’s Murder Inc. also figures promptly in both. Under the mobsters were the local union bosses; the Johnny Friendly of the story.

These corrupt men ruled “the greatest harbor of the greatest city of the greatest country in the world” and they ran it like their own private grab-bag. After the largely successful 83-day 1934 West Coast longshore strike, Pacific coast longshoremen, who had rebelled against Ryan's leadership, first organizing the membership to reject the contract that Ryan had negotiated, then leading the strike over his objections, voted to secede from the ILA and join the Congress of Industrial Organizations as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Soon longshore locals in Baltimore (the 6th busiest port in the world) , The Great Lakes, New Orleans and everywhere else except the Port Of New York Harbor, had bolted.


“Karl Malden as Father Barry in On The Waterfront 1954Longshoremen obtained work through a ‘shapeup’ in which bosses chose a workforce on a daily basis. Longshoremen often worked only a day or less per week as a consequence. Work was especially uncertain for those who unloaded trucks and ships and had to appeal to gangsters who controlled this work for employment. The ‘shapeup’ figures prominently in the story, as it lays out how the gangsters and local bosses controlled the work force. They got to pick and choose who worked to put bread on the table and who didn’t. Complain about anything ; safety – and longshore work was the most dangerous in the country and suffered more casualties than miners – pay, theft, literally anything and you did not get a work assignment. You kept your mouth shut and went along if you wanted to eat.

This also tended to tie the longshoremen to their neighborhood. If they moved, they wouldn’t get work anywhere else because they were ‘outsiders’. And naturally, the bosses made sure the workers didn’t earn enough to even consider moving. And when they’d be short on money, there were the loan sharks, who were also the same bosses, to lend you enough to feed your family at 10% interest per week. If you got behind they’d make sure you got your tag to work for a few days and have your pay-packet sent straight to the guy who hired you to pay your debt. The gangster went even further by owning or controlling (by providing protection) the local businesses. Then there was the ‘short gang’. If a crew of 22 was required to unload a ship and turn it around, the bosses would ‘short gang’ the load. They’d only send 16 or 18 men to do the work, then charge the shipping company for the full 22, pocketing the wages from the ‘ghost’ 6 or 8 longshoremen. The gangsters even controlled the bars in the neighborhoods surrounded by the railroad flats (so called because the rooms were strung together back to back, like the cars of a train. You might enter a flat through the kitchen and to get to any other room in the apartment, you walked through one room to another).

The 1950s was a decade of turmoil and trauma for the ILA. Several sensationalist articles, like those published by Schulberg and Malcolm Johnson, were printed in New York City newspapers and focused on “alleged” rampant gangsterism on the City's waterfront. In 1953 Governor Thomas E. Dewey ordered his New York State Crime Commission to conduct a full investigation of the ILA. They in turn formed The Waterfront Commission of the New York Harbor which put a lot of pressure on Ryan and his gangster associates and eventually led to his resignation after the ILA was suspended by the AFL. It is during this period that the story – both the movie and the book – take place.

Set in the fictional port of Bohegan, NJ the story opens centered on Terry Malloy, a retired prize fighter who just goes along and has no real ambition other than to earn a few bucks to keep himself in beer and dames. Terry Malloy is a half-vicious hoodlum caught between the waterfront mob and a groping, anxious awakening of his conscience. But Terry’s inability to look into himself or to experience anything but the immediate pleasure or pain of life on the waterfront are nothing but sloth. Terry’s brother is Charley Malloy, the dockside lawyer and right hand man of Johnny Friendly, the local pier boss who exercises iron-fisted control of the waterfront. Terry is used to coax a popular dockworker, Joey Doyle, out to an ambush preventing him from testifying against Friendly before the Crime Commission. Terry thinks that Friendly’s “pistorleros” – the men he keeps around him who are “on the muscle” - picked for three qualities or rather two of three qualities; they have to be rough or brainy AND loyal – are just going to put a scare in to Doyle, maybe work him over a little, but they throw Doyle off the roof. Terry resents being used as a tool in Joey's death but is still willing to play "D and D" – deaf and dumb. Terry meets and is smitten by the murdered Joey Doyle's sister, Edie (Katie in the book) who has shamed "waterfront priest" Father Barry into fomenting action against the mob-controlled union. Father Berry convinces Runty Nolan (in the book, Kayo Duggan in the film) to testify after Father Barry's promise of unwavering support. Duggan is killed when Friendly get’s word of Runty’s agreement and his body thrown in the river. See the scene above with Karl Malden giving the speech when Runty/Kayo is pulled from the river. As Father Barry says, “In his mind the river and Johnny Friendly were one, endlessly dangerous and never sleeping.” Silent partners as it were.

Terry, tormented by his awakening conscience, increasingly leans toward testifying, Friendly decides that Terry must be killed unless Charley can coerce him into keeping quiet. Charley tries bribing Terry with a good job, and finally threatens him by holding a gun up against him, but recognizes he has failed to sway Terry, who places the blame for his own downward spiral on his well-off brother. In one of the most famous scenes in film history, Terry reminds Charley that if it had not been for the fixed fight, he “could’a been a contender”.

Charley gives Terry a gun and advises him to run. Friendly has been spying on the situation, so he has Charley murdered, his body hanged in an alley as bait to get at Terry. Terry sets out to shoot Friendly, but Father Barry obstructs that course of action and finally convinces Terry to fight Friendly by testifying.

The novel bares many differences from the film. Mainly, the film is centered on Terry Malloy, Marlon Brando’s character and is told almost entirely from Terry’s point of view. The novel, on the other hand, is narrated by Father Barry, and though Terry Malloy is a main character, he is but one of many. Schulberg stated the reason for this being the two “art forms” are very different. “Film is an art of high points. It should embrace five or six sequences, each upping the tension and mounting to a climax. In film,” he states, “there is no room for multiple points of view, for ‘digressions’ into complicated, contradictory character traits or an exploration of social background.” In short, the film must “act” and employ action where the novel can meander into things like background, motivation and historical context. The film, in Schulberg’s view, must go from significant episode to more significant episode. So, the film makes no effort to explain the social background. It simply ‘shows’ the mob controlled docks, simply mentions the Water Front Crime Commission and gives no background of why it existed in the first place.

The novel does all of these things, and Father Barry in the novel art form, is the ideal narrator. Terry Malloy becomes, in the novel, just a single strand in the rope, a major strand among the characters to be sure, but not the central strand. The novel allows Schulberg to work ‘veins’ of the story, the social conditions, Father Barry’s inner dialog with himself as he wrestles with his conscience, that the film could not. It allows the struggle of Father Barry’ as he weighs obedience to the church and his social responsibility to his flock just as St Francis Xavier of Goa had to weigh his conscience against his Portuguese masters and martyring himself for the Hindu Pearl Divers being exploited by the European colonizers.

As good as the film is, which hardly need’s my support at this stage in life, the book is a more educational and deeper look into a place in time. It fleshes out the story in a way the film didn’t even try to, and makes for a great read with a basis in history. Although Schulberg as a novelist, is no Émile Zola or Theodore Dreiser and Schulberg claimed no membership in that great company, the novel is written in that tradition and deserves its place in the literary canon.

On the Waterfront is a powerful retelling of an iconic American story that stands apart from the great film as an unforgettable vision of crime, politics, and class in the twentieth century. This eBook from Open Road Media features an illustrated biography of Budd Schulberg including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

The Dirty Lowdown

[Agosto2010 fermare l'esecuzione di Ahmadreza Djala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Bohegan le cose funzionava in questo modo.

Fronte del Porto di Schulberg nasce dalla trasformazione di della sceneggiatura del film diretto da E. Kazan, con protagonista un bravissimo Marlon Brando.
Nel romanza Schulberg approfondisce la dura vita degli scaricatori del porto sfruttati da “sindacalisti” mafiosi soprattutto di origine irlandese. Homo homini lupus.
Pubblicato nel 1955, il libro ha saputo mantenere un fascino senza tempo. I personaggi, non cadono in stereotipi: offrendo uno spaccato autentico della condizione umana e della società.
L'attualità della storia è riscontrabile nelle condizioni di lavoro di molti ultimi nelle nostre città.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those plays that lives forever in the shadow of Marlon Brando's "contender" speech and all Terry's are now played as shadows of Brando. This production is no different, but Hector Elizondo shines as the union mob boss, and I've noticed in La Theatre Works productions he tends to get the role of heavy an awful lot. It's that rasping voice of his, that keen edge under the rasp that has the sound of threat under it all. A pretty decent production of a bit of a hokey play. Very black and white, good guys and bad guys with Terry teetering between the two as our only shade of gray and he's written as a dimwit, so basically the play says you're either a good guy or a bad guy and if you can't decide you're a moron.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atmospheric tale of life on the docks in New York in the 20th Century admidst corruption and violence. An exploration of guilt, conscience, mob rule and bleak poverty.

[Kaj Roihio]

Toisen maailmansodan jälkeisessä Yhdysvalloissa totuudenmukaisuus oli pinnalla. Sotavuosien kärsimysten ja kuoleman jälkeen vaaleanpunaiset pilvilinnat eivät enää olleet niin vetoavia. Nelson Algren kirjoitti sodasta palaavien puolalaistaustaisten miesten huumeongelmista menestysteoksessaan Kultainen käsi. Budd Schulberg puolestaan käsitteli irlantilaissiirtolaisten ahdinkoa järjestäytyneen rikollisuuden nujertamina kirjassa Alaston satama. Yksilön niukka liikkumavara ahdasmielisessä, melkein sisäsiittoisessa irlantilaisyhteisössä tuodaan hyvin esille. Rikollispomot eivät alistaneet pelkästään satamatyöläisiä, vaan poliisit, papit ja lehtimiehet kulkivat kiltisti talutusnuorassa hekin. Kun yhteiskunta oli voideltu huipulle asti, ei yksilöllä ollut paljon pullikoimista. Jokaisen kannatti pysyä ruodussaan, koska se, joka nousi valtaapitäviä vastaan, löytyi kellumasta vedestä tai tynnyristä kaatopaikalla. Schulbergin kirja on melkein antropologinen tutkimus, se käy läpi eri kerrostumat satamajätkästä pormestariin, keskinäiset suhteet, katolisen kirkon merkityksen, alkoholin kirouksen, irlantilaisen kansanluonteen ja vaikenemisen lain. Romanttinen sivujuoni on kokonaisuuden kannalta osittain ylimääräinen, mutta 50-luvulla kirjoitettuna se vain täytyy hyväksyä oman aikansa ilmiönä. Suomennos on harmittavasti kömpelö ja aikansa elänyt, erisnimiä ei pitäisi rusikoida suomenkieliseen muotoon. Lempeä Janne on kaikinpuolin tarpeeton ja kamala käännös nimestä Johnny Friendly. Näistä puutteista huolimatta Alaston satama on erinomainen kirja ja on huomionarvoista, että Schulberg kirjoitti sen ensin käsikirjoitukseksi ja vasta elokuvan menestyksen jälkeen muokkasi onnistuneesti romaaniksi. Harvemmin mennään siinä järjestyksessä. Oli miten oli, voin suositella.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an example of the kind of muscular but moral writing that’s so hard to find these days. When I hanker after some straightforward prose, a tough narrative, an honest to goodness story, I often seek out some of the “modern classics” written around the time of the Second World War. Books like The Cruel Sea or The Caine Mutiny and authors like Nevil Shute and Geoffrey Household, who can spin a tale that won’t let you go. There’s a refreshing lack of profanity, there’s no fear of romance, or the drawing of a sharp division between men and women where each wield their own power and weaknesses in their own way. In fact, these books are often more shocking in the way they write about lust or cruelty or fate because they place in you into what almost seems to be a more innocent world. But it wasn’t and, in many ways, things were a lot more bleak, cruel and corrupt in those days of yore than they are today. This book tackles such subjects by focusing on the endemic corruption of the New York docks. It’s a famous story because of the film, but it’s still well worth reading even although Terry is impossible to picture as anyone but Marlon Brando. The book gives more depth to the character though, despite the fact that I often wasn’t sure about his romantic idealism.
Given the grip the story had on me - I finished the novel in just over a day - I now want to read some other books by this author. Modern fiction often leaves me cold and it’s good to have these classics on standby when you’re struggling to find something to engage with.

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 3 out of 5]

LATW play performance. The play is an adaptation of the novel which was written after the screenplay making for an unusual lineage. I never saw the Brando movie, but this sure reminded me of the dockworker season of The Wire. The US has a complicated relationship with labour organization, and on a broader level it's tragic depictions like this are emblematic in discussions on the topic - the project itself being borne out of the director's participation in the McCarthy red scare trials. You can spend a lot of pages analyzing who's trying to say what on a meta-level, keeping english grads stacked with research proposals.
The plot itself focuses less on coulda been a contender Terry and instead inserts the perspective of a priest working to expose the mob which was a wrinkle added in the novel along with a more downbeat ending. It all hinges on the budding romance between Terry and Edie, which never really made sense given what happens to her brother. It feels like there's a missing aspect of guilt that's not really explored and instead lust and opportunism is supposed to be the fuel for the romance that ultimately tests Terry's loyalties. Not to say guilt isn't a driver in the story, it's specifically their connection that feels forced - shouldn't he be more avoidant of her instead, isn't that a barrier to overcome?

[Dewi Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Budd Schulberg’s The Harder They Fall, I had high expectations for On The Waterfront and it met every single one.

Before my time, I was ignorant to the story’s success in its day. It first came on my radar when mentioned as one of the inspirations behind the original Rocky film which, although a great film, doesn’t feel half as authentic as Schulberg’s setting on the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey.

The main difference between the two is that whereas Rocky realises his potential, Terry Malloy (another down on his luck boxer and one of the main protagonists) becomes a prisoner to his. Although there are plenty of heroes and martyrs, On The Waterfront is far from a feel good story.

Narrated in large parts by Father Pete Barry, it’s a tragic tale of human greed and suffering presented through the prism of mob-infested unions, systemic institutional corruption, and the exploitation of the poor working man.

The characters are complex. As much as you enjoy their wit (often gallows humour), you will equally be frustrated by their unavoidable fate.

In the very end, you get the sense that the more things change, the more they actually stay the same.

[Michael Van Kerckhove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first saw the film back in college during my classic film (and Marlon Brando) obsession (and 89 cent VHS rentals at the video store off campus.) I picked the book up a few years back at a local resale store for a buck. I didn't know about the novel. Finally pulled it off the shelf. Loved entering that world again, and loved Budd's language taking us there. Fr. Barry seemed to have an even larger role in the book than the film, but it's been a long time since I've seen it. I loved the omniscient narrator focusing on the entire ensemble. Will be watching the film again soon.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have seen the film hundreds of times, but reading this novel gave me new insights into these characters that I never expected to have. It was really interesting to get inside Fr. Barry's head, or to find out more about Runty Nelson (the stand-in for K.O. Duggan from the film). My only criticism is that the Malloy story turns out so differently. It's a redemption arc that now does not seem to have much redemption in it. I will continue to ponder it, but I am left feeling a little defeated.

[David Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the film and it inspired me to read the book A bit like the author, who wrote the screen play first. I found the book enthralling. It was written from third person and often delved into the thoughts of the characters giving a far great depth to them. The ending was more believable that the film.

[Ranette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book about the long-shoreman's business of unloading ships. The conspiracy runs deep in the union until men decide to stand up to the crooked leaders. I always wondered why people hearalded Marlon Brando as a great actor. After watching this movie, I understand. Full of violence and a man disturbed by his own twisted ideas. A great movie and book.

[Cobygirl517 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the movie in a film class in college and really enjoyed it. I didn't realize this audiobook was a play when I downloaded it, but it basically follows the movie. The play is a quick two-hour listen. On double speed, I listened to it in one day, to and from work. I think there's an actual novel as well, which I want to check out.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A live recording of a production, earnestly and histrionically performed, of Schulberg's 20th century moral parable of corruption, betrayal and incomplete justice. Familiar territory for the boxing aficionado Schulberg, whose "The Harder They Fall" covered the same exploitative characters - the good don't win in his stories.

[Lee Scoresby · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opener about how insidious mafia control of unions can be. It looks positively benevolent when you see it in The Godfather. I'd be happier if the priest had at least a bit of regret that his actions contributing to getting people killed.

[Joe Arieno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to think about how the book compares with the classic movie

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[UMS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunque el inicio es muy duro, demasiadas descripciones, muchos nombres y casi ningún acontecimiento, luego se hace entretenido y se lee casi del tirón

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reluctant to say the film was better, but in this case it just was - and predates the novel (hopefully that makes my opinion less likely to get me lynched by the book mob)

[Rao · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half is a bit hard to follow, but once I picked the book back up, the later portion was compelling

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I coulda my ass. Ik homie was not a real boxer when he had to get a gun.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm frankly astonished that I seem to be the only person who has read this book on Goodreads (and I have checked for other editions). This edition was published 2013 so it's not like it's been out of print. Schulberg also wrote the screenplay for the iconic film, but afterwards felt there was more story to tell and therefore fleshed it out into a novel. It's a long while since I've seen the movie - so long, in fact, that I can't even be sure that I have seen it! - but from what I know of the movie the basic events follow the same course. Apart from the ending which feels more realistic and downbeat from what I know of the movie.

The prose is straightforward and often clinical. There are moments where it sparks, particularly in scenes of confrontation, but there are also plenty of pages of repetition of how the waterfront system works and is managed, with each new character seemingly going over these relationships to the reader as though we were unaware. Because of this, it feels like reportage and doesn't flow as well as it could. I would estimate you could slew 100 pages and get a tighter book which would still expand on the movie but be gripping in its own right. As it is, pockets of interest get bogged down with exposition. For this reason I've given it two stars where a pruning might have elevated it to three or four.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schulberg can write and it is a story worth telling, but this novelisation (or adaptation) of the movie script doesn't quite work. Terry Malloy is an ex-boxer, drifting ambitionless now his boxing career is over. His brother is Charley the Gent, right hand man of self-made dock kingpin Johnny Friendly. Joey Doyle is an agitator for workers' rights and Friendly has him rubbed out, with the unwitting assistance of Terry. Doyle's sister, a prim Catholic schoolgirl, stirs up the local priest to organise co-operation with a crime commission investigation into the corrupt dockside practices. Schulberg knows his facts and he would be a terrifically persuasive companion over a beer or two. Unfortunately, without him in person, or without actors to make it sing, his story never quite incites the anger that it should.