TCM Presents . . . "On the Waterfront" On the Silver Screen

ON THE WATERFRONT, Marlon Brando, 1954

When it comes to Classic Cinema the average viewer usually has only three choices.

1. Wait until the movie hits TCM and pray you're home.
2. Grit your teeth through the skips and jumps and frame freezes on the library copy.
3. Dig out your wallet and actually buy the DVD (blu-ray if you're REALLY lucky).

If you're like me, which hopefully you are, then you've spent more than your fair share of time hoping and waiting for your favorite classic movie to actually hit DVD in a remastered format. There was never really any hope beyond the basic opportunity to view, in this case my favorite classic movie, On the Waterfront (1954) on anything other than your typical television screen on your typical DVD.
Except that TCM has finally, and I do mean finally, done something spectacular.

I'm a fan of Fathom Events at the theater. They can be loads of fun depending on what you're seeing. I saw Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy as Fathom events, plus some special Elvis in Concert night.

This past Wednesday, April 27th 2016, TCM presented On the Waterfront in the theater ON THE SILVER SCREEN.

Though I'm sure other viewers would deny it, I'm pretty sure that angels were singing. The above scene is HEAVEN on the big screen.

Okay, I admit that there were only 8 people in the theater for the evening showing, including myself. But I've never had a better seat at the movie theater in my life than I did for On the Waterfront, a film I consider to be the absolute height of Marlon Brando's career, let alone the careers of Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, and Karl Malden.

The hilarious thing is that when you put a classic movie on the big screen nowadays, you notice things . . . things that get lost on your home television.

Such as.

1. Joey Doyle's dialogue never ONCE matched his lips in his one and only scene.
2. No one was willing to pay for an actual stuntman to fall from the roof in lieu of the OBVIOUS dummy?
3. Dramatic music must ALWAYS accompany smooching in classic cinema.

Ah well, such is life, I guess.

Despite the little hiccups here and there, On the Waterfront remains one of the finest examples of classic Hollywood from the 1950s.

ON THE WATERFRONT, Rod Steiger, Marlon Brando, 1954

You know that scene with Brando and Rod Steiger in the taxicab? I thought it couldn't possibly move me since I've watched the movie countless times. But there's something about that scene in an actual theater that tested my emotional reserve. There were a few actual tears, people.

I know, it's too late for you to watch On the Waterfront in the movie theater. You have my sympathy because it was so totally worth it. Thank you, Turner Classic Movies, for taking my mind off the loss of my sweet kitty by putting my favorite movie on the silver screen.