On the Waterfront Essay on Loyalty

The notion of family loyalty is displayed throughout the film as a driving force to override corruption, the workers on the waterfront can be considered a family as their struggle from corruption forces them to on each other for survival. The loyalty between the shore men’s families grips Edie as her Brother Joey’s murder increases her family loyalty to find his killer, but also Johnny Friendly’s power over the shoremen workers makes sure that their loyalty towards him is kept sacred so his corruption is not caught out.
The union on the waterfront are entangled in a system run by their ironically named boss, Johnny Friendly, who controls them dispensing work tokens to them each day, watching the workers scrambling like pigeons. They are aware that they are powerless to Friendly’s corrupt rule but their loyalty to the union is dependent on their survival and fear needs. This is seen when Father Barry questions the workers ethic, “Like Big Mac said, come back tomorrow.” The workers despise the system but stay loyal to the union. Pop Doyle’s determination to come back to work after his son’s death displays the dismal lifestyle of the waterfront and their constant need for survival “I gotta work to pay for the funeral”.
Elia Kazan’s film portrays loyalty as a constant struggle through morals and views, as Terry and Charley have an ongoing dilemma between their different views of loyalty. So often, Terry is filmed behind a fence, portraying his sense of freedom. He is caged like his pigeons, he envies their freedom. Charley is supposedly Friendly’s ‘brain’, trusted with the financial dealings of the union. He is one of Friendly’s acolytes and has pledged allegiance to the union boss, Charley has shown some loyalty to Terry, ensuring he gets easy work on the docks as long as he remains ‘D and D’. In one of the scenes in ‘On The Waterfront’ there is a shot in the back of a car involving Charley and Terry. In this scene, we begin to see Charley’s real love for his