"On the Waterfront" (1954)

Am Watching an edited version--that means, I watched the 1st 40 minutes and fast forwarded through the rest. Never mind that it won a slew of awards and stars a young Marlon Brando, it apparently isn't my kind of movie (love story--decent girl falls for a mob boy, um, sure). Best part so far is that the music is by Leonard Bernstein. Music isn't used for long stretches of time--lots of silence--but when it does pop in you can hear traces of Bernstein's characteristics in it. This is 3 years before "West Side Story". The opening scene's music was quite interesting. Otherwise, the music seems to be more of a transitional device--maybe?

After fast-forwarding through the middle, I watched the ending. Yeah, the music is the most interesting part of the movie. Makes the movie. The rest, sorry, just doesn't grab me. I can see from what I watched why it got such acclaim; it has that flavor to it.

So, if any music person needs a movie to analyze compositionally, this movie is a good bet.  Oh, and I'm sure a Marxist criticism would work well with this movie, too.