Elia Kazan’s film On the Water Front focuses on corruption, union violence as well as rampant extortion, murders and racketeering at Hoboken waterfronts. Terry is keen on surviving this corruption despite the pressures to conform as well as the fact that all other people advance corruption. The police who could have helped to end the corruption are powerless against John Friendly, the mob chief who threatens witnesses to murders and corruption. These sentiments are echoed by Rashbaum (2017) who establishes that back in the 1950s, violence and crime ruled Brooklyn waterfront when the mob was in charge. The film forms the basis of Daniel Bells 1959 essay “The Racket-Ridden Longshore” that explores industrial relations with a focus corruption in trade unions and how it leverages unionism. An analysis of the film and the article establishes the nature of organized crime in New York waterfront susceptible to unionized corruption. On the Water Front is a film that depicts corruption, murder, theft and extortion that goes on at Hoboken, New York waterfronts as if there was no government in place to contain it. New York seems like a friendly place owing to how it is presented in the movie as having a glittering skyline with large ocean liners lining the ocean piers. The conversation between Terry Malloy and Joey Doyle strikes the viewer as friendly as they talk about Joeys lost pigeon. Terry tells Joey, “He followed my birds into their coop. Here, you want him?” (3:20) Joey replies, “Well I got to watch myself these days. Know what I mean?” (Spiegel, 1954, 3:30). As a friend would do, Terry offered to take the pigeon up Joey’s loft. This friendliness that New York offers is captured in Bell's essay which describes New York waterfront as “an atavistic world more redolent of the brawling money-grubbing of the nineteenth century than the smooth-mannered business transactions of the twentieth.” (Bell, 2001, p. 175) Unexpectedly, this aromatic waterfront could be harbor dangerous mobsters who practice all kinds of economic evils without being regulated. The film is indicative of a waterfront that is governed by an ironfisted and corrupt Johnny Friendly who heads the dockworkers union. Friendly expects the dockworkers to toe the line in covering up for murders and other shady deals and a failure to do so is met with isolation, shaming or even worse death. Terry confesses to the priest that the “waterfront is tougher like it ain't part of America.” Joey who had threatened to talk to the Crime Commission about two understand the dock, led John Friendly using Terry to orchestrate Joey’s murder at the hands of Barney Sonny and Specs. The two could be heard celebrating their victory by stating that Joey “thought he was gonna sing for the Crime Commission. He won't.” (Spiegel, 1954, 6:23). Although Terry has witnessed the deaths of two of Friendly’s thugs and Joey, he cannot dare to be a witness as he would lose his job at the highly competitive waterfront. When he finally gets the courage to betray Jonny, he loses his job and his life and that of his brother and girlfriend is under constant threat. This kind of evil that marks Hoboken waterfront is what basis the argument in Bell's essay which views New York waterfront as “a rough, racket ridden frontier domain, ruled by the bull-like figure of the “shaping boss.” (Bell 2001, p. 175) According to Bell, the level of discipline in this waterfront is quite high, considering that it is enforced through “brawn and muscle… baling hook and knife” (p. 176). Anybody who tries to challenge the status quo is threatened to keep quiet or risk losing his life or job which is not as forthcoming. On the Water Front focuses on the issue of persisting racial discrimination as well as rising inequalities for the minorities and immigrants who form the majority of workers. These workers have to compete for casual labor at the waterfront and they cannot do anything that risks their employment. Terry confesses to the priest that on “the dock... we've always been D and D. (Spiegel, 1954, 34:11) which indicates that they remain deaf and dumb in as much they hate the corrupt bosses to secure their employment. Bell's essay espouses this kind of desperation who claims that the union bosses subdue “a motley group of Italian immigrants, Slavic and Negro workers, and a restless and grumbling group of Irish” (Bell, 2001, p. 175). Immigrants and minority groups face the brunt of this organized crime that benefits a few at the expense of this disadvantaged group. Anyone who goes against the code of conduct as outlined by the union bosses risks losing his job at the dock. The bosses must take advantage of the booming New York shipping business that requires companies to have “speedy unloading and loading and a quick getaway” (Bell, 2001, p. 178). In such a case, then such a company would require a compliant labor force, which would follow all the rules without question.
References
Bell, D. (2001). The end of ideology: On the exhaustion of political ideas in the fifties . Harvard University Press.
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Rashbaum, W. K. (2017, August 14). Longshoremen and the mob: When violence and corruption ruled the Brooklyn waterfront. New York Daily News . https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/violence-corruption-ruled-brooklyn-waterfront-article-1.811574
Spiegel, S. (Producer), & Kazan, E. (Director). (1954). On the Water Front [Motion picture]. United States of America: Horizon Pictures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_RH29VqOY
