On the Waterfront (Horizon; Columbia) is an attempt by a master director, Elia Kazan, to develop heroic, classic-style drama out of dockside thuggery and union corruption. Kazan succeeds in producing a shrewd piece of screen journalism, a melodrama in the grand manner of Public Enemy and Little Caesar. But he fails to do anything more serious—largely because he tries too hard. In searching for the general meaning in little lives, Director Kazan has trained his lens down fine on small events; he has too often watched his characters through the magnifying glass of...
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