On the Waterfront. Leonard Bernstein
Twenty-nine year old Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a former boxer, is controlled by his older brother Charley (Rod Steiger), who told him subtly when to take a fall in having big bets against him in return for a small cut. Taken out of that life, he is now a longshoreman working the Hoboken docks, the union and thus the docks controlled by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) for who Charley works in the upper ranks. Catholic priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) is the moral voice of the docks, when Terry falls in love with Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint)
Leonard Bernstein understood that this was a complex narrative in which powerful emotions intersect, and that the score could not be unobtrusive. As such, the architecture of his score would employ leitmotifs in the Golden Age tradition, but with a modernist edge. “On The Waterfront – Main Title” offers a stunning score highlight, which showcases a trio of Bernstein’s primary themes. The american composer resisted Elia Kazan’s wish for a grand orchestral statement, instead opening with a lonely solo French horn sounding the Dignity Theme. Soon it is taken up by solo flute, trumpet and finally the orchestra. Bernstein understood that the film offered Terry’s journey from darkness to the redemption of light. As such his theme opens the film and offers a testament to Terry’s nobility.