On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		5.0

On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 14, 2024

An unforgettable Marlon Brando stars in On the Waterfront (1954), which makes its domestic 4K debut courtesy of the Volume 5 box set of the Columbia Classics Collection, a terrific release that also features 4K versions of Robert Rossen's All the King's Men (1949), Best Picture biopic A Man for All Seasons (1966), the still-hilarious Tootsie (1982), the sumptuous Daniel Day Lewis-led The Age of Innocence (1993), and Greta Gerwig's masterful Little Women (2019). Each volume in Sony's ongoing collection not only highlights a spread of the best of the best of the decades, it gives each film a high quality video presentation, (when necessary) a striking remaster or restoration, cutting edge audio (typically an Atmos upgrade), and often new extras.

Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is an ex-boxer drifting through life without a clear direction. He doesn't mind doing odd jobs to make ends meet because he doesn't have any goals or ambitions. When he feels lonely, he heads to the pigeon coop he's built on the roof of his apartment building. Terry's life changes dramatically when he realizes that he's been tricked to set up the murder of a man who's threatened to expose the shady dealings of local union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). Initially, Terry remains silent because for years Johnny's men have been giving him the easiest jobs on the docks and because his brother Charley (Rod Steiger) is also Johnny's right-hand man. But when he meets the murdered man's sister, Edie Doyle (Eve Marie Saint), he changes his mind. Charley immediately warns Terry that going against Johnny would be a terrible mistake that would cost him not only his gigs at the docks but possibly even his life. Then he meets a local priest, Father Barry (Karl Malden), and with Edie next to him, begins to question his loyalty to Johnny and Charlie.

Click here to read the rest of Dr. Svet Atanasov's review of On the Waterfront, a true classic he calls, "raw and gritty, at times looking a lot like a documentary feature about life around Hoboken's dangerous docks." While, he adds, offering "small episodes that also look like they were extracted from a stylish film noir about gangsters and hoodlums."

On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented on three separate 4K discs with three separate aspect ratios -- 1.33:1, 1.67:1 and 1.85:1 -- Sony's 4K release of On the Waterfront is as thorough and high-quality as anyone could ask for. To answer the obvious question of every newcomer, start with 1.66:1, move to 1.33:1 for a second viewing, and somewhere in the middle, be sure to watch the aspect ratio featurette included on Disc Four. The 1.85:1 presentation is strictly for those bothered by side bars, though it features the same gorgeous image quality as its 1.33 and 1.67 counterparts. But never mind that. How does it look? Magnificent. Perfect. Flawless. Definitive. To cut to the chase, this is, hands down, the best release of On the Waterfront on the market. No matter the presentation you choose, the black and white photography has never fared better, nor has its detail and grain ever been crisper or more filmic. Bright portions of the image are striking and clean, while black levels reveal just how careful the restoration's contrast has been dialed in masterfully. Gradient tones are smooth, depth and dimensionality are remarkable, edge definition is perfectly exacting yet free of any halos whatsoever, and fine textures are more revealing than ever. This is truly an upgrade of top tier proportions. Grain is aggressive at times but altogether natural, and not a speck of it has been scrubbed away. Better still, all three encodes are free of blocking, banding and any protentional digital issues, making for one helluva contender no matter which aspect ratio you prefer.

• Disc One 1.33:1 Presentation - Screenshots 2, 6, 9-18
• Disc Two 1.67:1 Presentation - Screenshots 1, 4, 7, 19-27
• Disc Three 1.85:1 Presentation - Screenshots 3, 5, 8, 28-34
• Disc Four Aspect Ratio Comparisons - Screenshots 35-40

On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Each presentation of the film also features three audio options: a sparkling new Dolby Atmos experience, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track from Criterion's 2013 release, and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix. It seems the consensus among cinephiles, myself included, is to skip past the fancy surround tracks and stick with the mono track, which boasts perfectly prioritized dialogue, a suitably era-centric soundscape, and a killer rendition of the movie's score. And our review of the Criterion release already addressed the benefits of the 5.1 lossless track. Which brings us to Sony's Atmos offering, a killer experience in every way that retains the tone and tenor of the Mono mix while adding a sense of "being there" with an immersive and involving soundfield. Directionality proves fairly welcome -- more so than in the DTS-HD 5.1 run -- and does a better job integrating original audio elements with more spacious exterior ambience and interior acoustics. It never quite reaches the level of an Atmos track whose film was designed with multi-directionality from the get-go, but it will no doubt please modern film fans seeking out the latest and greatest in technological achievements. All that said, I'll be watching On the Waterfront in 1.66:1 with its Mono mix anytime I make a visit to Terry's stomping grounds.

On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While Sony's 4-disc set offers plenty of supplemental material, it's still missing quite a bit of content from the Criterion release. Completists will need to hold onto their previous edition to take advantage of all the film's extras.

• Audio Commentary - Film critic Richard Schickel and film historian Jeff Young.

• Martin Scorsese & Kent Jones (HD, 18 minutes) - This 2012 conversation between Scorsese and Kent finds the pair discussing the film's legacy, impact, influence and even the controversies surrounding its production and release.

• Contender: Mastering the Method (SD, 25 minutes) - Filmed in 2001, this featurette joins Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton with actors Martin Landau and Rod Steiger and authors Patricia Bosworth and Jeff Young to delve into method acting and its use during the production of On the Waterfront.

• Interview with Director Elia Kazan (SD, 12 minutes) - A 2001 interview of director Elia Kazan by critic Richard Schickel.

• Budd Schulberg: A Righteous Indignation (HD, 15 minutes) - An early-2000s interview with the film's writer.

• Boris Kaufman: A Vision Beyond Borders (HD, 15 minutes) - The film's cinematographer also sits down for a chat.

• Eva Marie Saint Interview (HD, 11 minutes) - In this 2012 interview, actress Eva Marie Saint recalls her time on set, her work with Marlon Brando, direction from Kazan, and more.

• Thomas Hanley Interview (HD, 12 minutes) - Another 2012 interview, this time with actor Thomas Hanley, who recounts being cast, his time on set, and his early life in the real Hoboken, New Jersey, where his father was killed by gangsters and, subsequently, the film was shot.

• On the Aspect Ratio (HD, 5 minutes) - A look at the three aspect ratios included with this release.

• Photo Gallery (SD, 4 minutes)

• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3 minutes)

On the Waterfront 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

On the Waterfront remains one of the best films of all time; a true classic in every sense of the word. Sony's 4-disc 4K edition suggests no less, with a terrific trio of remastered video presentations (at 1.33:1, 1.66:1 and 1.85:1, each presented on its own 4K disc), an top notch trio of audio tracks (including a new Atmos experience), and a pretty hefty collection of extras. Highly, highly recommended.