A City Full of Hawks: On the Waterfront Seventy Years Later—Still the Great American Contender

Rebello's book chronicles the making of "On the Waterfront," a classic American film about organized crime and dockworkers in New Jersey. It features big personalities, creative clashes, and the challenges of filming on the Hoboken waterfront.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 19 January 2025
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press

Journalist Rebello delivers a meticulous account of On the Waterfronts bumpy path to the silver screen. Rebello gamely traces how real-life political drama combined with rank Hollywood gamesmanship to create a classic of American film. Cinephiles will be transfixed. - Publishers Weekly Perhaps no movie has better dramatized the interplay of ambition, corruption, and disappointment in America than On the Waterfront, best captured in the closing I couldve been a contender speech given by Marlon Brandos character Terry Malloy. A gripping tale about organized crime and dockworkers in New Jersey, it is justifiably remembered today as one of the greatest movies of the twentieth century. This film about internecine power struggles and thwarted ambition had its share of big personalities involved in its making, among them Brando, Elia Kazan, playwright Arthur Miller, screenwriter Schulberg, producer Sam Spiegel, composer Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Monroe, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Montgomery, Grace Kelly, Aaron Copland, and more. What happened among them, let alone the dramas that were unfolding in their personal lives when they were off set, ironically recalls WHAT Michael Corleone says in one of On the Waterfronts most celebrated descendants, The Godfather: Its not personal. Its strictly business. But, of course, its always intensely personalas this fascinating narrative shows. From creative clashes to the challenges of filming on the Hoboken waterfront to the specter of anticommunist paranoia that shadowed the movies creation and reception, this is a revealing look at the making of a genuine cinematic classic.

Weight: 499g
Dimension: 236 x 160 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781493077809