Loyalty and betrayal are central to 'On The Waterfront'.
“Stooling is when you rat on your friends, the guys you’re with.” (Charley Malloy)
‘Loyalty and betrayal are central to this film.’ Discuss.
“I was ratting on myself all them years, and I didn’t even know it.” Terry Malloy’s eventual realisation in Elia Kazan’s film, On the Waterfront (1954), reveals the philosophical nature of allegiances that the story of an exploited waterfront community’s resistance to an oppressive mob is centred on. Set on the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, the film explores how certain loyalties are detrimental to one’s dignity and integrity but necessary for survival. Whereas other loyalties are often innate to one’s being, born out of love and protectiveness. Kazan argues that ultimately, it is our moral conscience that decides where our dominant loyalty lies. Using a variety of personalities with conflicting morals and fluctuating loyalties, the director suggests to audiences that the most important loyalty we owe is to ourselves, that is, our moral conscience.
Loyalty is essential when it comes to survival on the docks, however, this will only perpetuate the harmful status quo. As a survival tactic under the waterfront’s repressive regime, the dock workers’ unwritten code of “D and D” (“deaf and dumb”) exemplifies the tacit, blind compliance of the longshoremen. Despite their hatred of the mob, the longshoremen do not “rat”. Through the men’s submissive obedience, Kazan implies that without a desire to change the unfair oppressive loyalties, this injustice will never be overturned. The subservient nature of the dock workers attitudes toward the mob is again epitomised in each day’s “shape-up”. We see the pack of fully grown men fervent scramble for the few work tokens that are carelessly tossed over the hiring stevedore’s head. Demonstrating the animalistic instincts of the workers, the film evokes a sense of helplessness and pity within audiences who are able to see how this passive adherence is necessary for “stayin’ alive” in
‘Loyalty and betrayal are central to this film.’ Discuss.
“I was ratting on myself all them years, and I didn’t even know it.” Terry Malloy’s eventual realisation in Elia Kazan’s film, On the Waterfront (1954), reveals the philosophical nature of allegiances that the story of an exploited waterfront community’s resistance to an oppressive mob is centred on. Set on the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, the film explores how certain loyalties are detrimental to one’s dignity and integrity but necessary for survival. Whereas other loyalties are often innate to one’s being, born out of love and protectiveness. Kazan argues that ultimately, it is our moral conscience that decides where our dominant loyalty lies. Using a variety of personalities with conflicting morals and fluctuating loyalties, the director suggests to audiences that the most important loyalty we owe is to ourselves, that is, our moral conscience.
Loyalty is essential when it comes to survival on the docks, however, this will only perpetuate the harmful status quo. As a survival tactic under the waterfront’s repressive regime, the dock workers’ unwritten code of “D and D” (“deaf and dumb”) exemplifies the tacit, blind compliance of the longshoremen. Despite their hatred of the mob, the longshoremen do not “rat”. Through the men’s submissive obedience, Kazan implies that without a desire to change the unfair oppressive loyalties, this injustice will never be overturned. The subservient nature of the dock workers attitudes toward the mob is again epitomised in each day’s “shape-up”. We see the pack of fully grown men fervent scramble for the few work tokens that are carelessly tossed over the hiring stevedore’s head. Demonstrating the animalistic instincts of the workers, the film evokes a sense of helplessness and pity within audiences who are able to see how this passive adherence is necessary for “stayin’ alive” in