Elia Kazan: A Contender in Realist Cinema
An analysis of the director behind A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954).
Spoilers for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954) ahead.
A “phenomenal, seething intimacy with actors, a way of getting to smothered psychological truths that had been buried in the gentility of previous theatre” (Thomson).
This is Elia Kazan’s contribution to the evolution of cinema.
As an actor, writer, and director for the screen and stage, Kazan is known for developing a style of acting that embodied a character’s inner truth, which is a concept he focuses on in films that deal with social issues like revolution, mob violence, and antisemitism.
Early Life
Born 1909 in what was once Constantinople of the Ottoman Empire, at the age of four Kazan moved to New York, where his father directed a rug business. After an education at Williams College, during which he often felt alienated amongst his privileged and white Protestant classmates, he pursued an MFA in drama at Yale and later joined the Group Theatre in NYC. In 1935, Kazan joined the Communist Party for a year and a half — and this group’s ideologies went on to heavily influence several of his films (Barson). He died in 2003.
Filmography
Upon entering Hollywood, Kazan shadowed director John Ford and directed his first commercial feature A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1945. This was followed by The Sea of Grass (1947), Boomerang! (1947), and “social problem” films like Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) and Pinky (1949) (Barson). Other films of his include A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954), the two of which we’ll talk about, as well as Viva Zapata! (1952) and East of Eden (1955).
The Actor’s Studio
In 1951, Kazan helped found the Actors Studio, which adapted the Stanislavsky system, or ‘method’ acting, of psychological realism to filmmaking techniques (Thomson). ‘The Method’ encourages actors to utilize their personal emotional memories to immerse themselves in their role, thereby developing a wide emotional range to respond freely to the events of a film as if they were a part of the real world (Britannica).
The Actors Studio produced the likes of Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, and most importantly Marlon Brando, who shot into fame after starring in Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire and later On the Waterfront. You might recognize him as the Godfather.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Released in 1951, A Streetcar Named Desire was adapted from a Broadway play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. It follows the marriage of Stella and Stanley Kowalski and the conflict that results from the arrival of Stella’s lonely sister, Blanche DuBois, a mentally ill and aging Southern beauty who lost her teaching post after of an affair with a student. Blanche’s fantastical delusions, covering-up of her past, and class privilege immediately clashes with Stanley’s down-to-business and brutish behavior, and this intensifies as Blanche extends her stay.
Acting Styles
Brando’s use of method acting, based on raw, emotional intuition, heightens his realist portrayal of Stanley’s brutality, and is often considered one of the most significant works of acting in the history of film. In contrast, Vivian Leigh’s performance as Blanche, described as one “based more on formality, on gesture, [and] on artifice” by the New York Times, reflects her fragility and deception.
Magic vs Reality
Blanche foils the concepts of magic and pretense with Stanley’s representation of naturalism and authenticity — at one point, she even pleads ‘I don’t want realism … I want magic!’. She uses copious amounts of makeup and even a Chinese paper lantern to create shadows in which she disguises her age. Stanley, who is suspicious of Blanche’s supposed inheritance, violently rips these illusions (and the lantern) apart in a later confrontation where he responds to her fictions and flirting with rape (Kael).
Essentially, Kazan is asking “what attracts us more? Beauty or brutality?” (New York Times).
Metaphor for Sexuality
Streetcar has also been interpreted as a metaphor for sexuality. Perhaps Stanley is threatened by Blanche because she is “a fictional variant of a gay man doing the tense bickering and bantering with a half-naked Stanley,” as film critic Peter Bradshaw puts it.
The cause of Blanche’s homelessness is also revealed to be her desire to assert her sexuality in the hopes of returning to a younger and happier version of herself. Her disapproval of her former husband’s homosexuality leads to his suicide, she is fired from teaching for sleeping with an underage student, she constantly engages in promiscuous behavior, and we even see her kiss the young post man while at the Kowalski’s.
Streetcar Symbolism
At the very beginning of the film, Blanche receives instructions to take a streetcar named Desire, and then another named Cemeteries to the Elysian Fields, the neighborhood where Stella and Stanley live. This represents a metaphorical progression from desire to death to the afterlife, which we see in Blanche’s character — her promiscuity leads to her rape, a symbolic death that leaves her unhinged and ultimately moved to a mental hospital (Bradshaw).
These nuanced themes of the “hot, ugly life being lived” by the Kowalski’s are conveyed through the claustrophobic and steamy setting of their apartment in the New Orleans heat and are further dramatized through Alex North’s jazz-based film score (Thomson).
Kazan’s HUAC Trials — 1952
In 1952, Kazan was called twice before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, the goal of which was to root out Communist influence through a series of publicly humiliating trials (Hiltzik). Those who did not comply were placed on the studio system’s “Black List,” a boycott that would have prevented Kazan from making more films. Although many hoped Kazan’s prominent role in the entertainment industry would destroy the blacklist, he admitted he had been a member of the Communist Party at his first trial and named eight fellow members at his second (Thomson). While he remained an unrepentant informer, he was instantly shunned by his own friends and remains a controversial figure to this day.
On the Waterfront (1954)
Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront is commonly interpreted as an allegory for and justification of his testimony in front of the HUAC. Inspired by a series of Pulitzer-Prize winning articles detailing the corruption in longshoreman unions, On the Waterfront follows the inner conflict of Terry Mallow, a prizefighter-turned-longshoreman who, at the beginning of the film, unknowingly helps the mob kill Joey, a former member who has spilled mob secrets. Stuck between staying loyal to mob boss Johnny Friendly or confessing to the dead man’s sister Edie Doyle and the Catholic priest Father Barry, Terry ultimately decides to expose the mob after the murder of his brother Charley.
Support for ‘Squealing’
Clearly, Kazan is firmly in favor of informing — he creates a black-and-white situation in which those being exposed are criminal mob members rather than the well-meaning writers and performers placed on the blacklist. As Hiltzik notes, the killing of Charley “denies the audience any opportunity for genuine consideration of the ambivalent and dangerous complexities of the informer issue. ‘Squealing’ may be relative, but in ‘Waterfront’ it is mandatory.”
Terry’s Inner Experience
In Waterfront, Kazan breaks from strict realism to tell a poetic fable — “Don’t be objective! This is not a documentary,” he wrote on the first page of his shooting script alongside another note: “Photograph the inner experience of Terry.”
Messenger Pigeons
This inner experience is externalized through the motif of messenger pigeons, which represent informing against the mob, and by extension, Terry himself. Stool pigeon is a negative slang term used to describe informers, and the power and consequent danger of informing is evident from the very first scene, when Terry uses a pigeon to lure Joey to his death. This pigeon is juxtaposed with the idea of a gun: page two of the screenplay reads that Terry “reaches into his windbreaker in a gesture associated with drawing a gun from a shoulder holster. But instead he draws out a live racing pigeon” (On the Waterfront).
Terry explains that he admires pigeons because of how loyal and dependable they are, a stark contrast to the hawks (representing the mob members) that prey on them. Much like Terry, the messenger pigeons are trapped in their coop in a “[city] full of hawks … there must be twenty thousand of ‘em” (On the Waterfront, pg 57). Here, this entrapment is visualized — and after Terry’s testification, all his pigeons are killed.
Weather + Cinematography
Kazan’s realist style emerges through director of photography Boris Kaufman’s cinematography. At the beginning of production, Kazan was furious about New Jersey’s ice-cold and bleak weather:
How much more bad luck will I get on this fucking film? Here we are, with the coldest and the grayest and the shortest days coming, up on a damned rooftop facing toward a skyline I’d counted on to be … a dramatic contrast to the degradation we’d show on the waterfront — and you could hardly see the damned skyline.
Despite this initial disappointment, the weather turned out to be a stroke of good luck — on film, it provided a palette of greys that mixed with a waterfront where, as Almereyda says, “mist, factory smoke, people’s breaths, and seething trash-can fires combine with meshed cages, black metal fences, and spiked railings to give off the feeling of a dangerous dream.” These murky tones of grey and striking lines of black, with the fog creating an uncertain atmosphere, turned out to be the perfect visual translation of Terry’s inner turmoil.
Scene Analysis: “I could’a been a contender!”
In the famous “I could’a been a contender!” scene, where Terry confronts his brother while being taken to the mob for revenge, mise-en-scene, cinematography, and acting combine to create subtext on Kazan’s testimony.
In the back of the taxi, venetian blinds and checkered clothing trap the characters in this hostage situation and in the moral dilemma Charley faces. This is furthered through a flashing light that lends a sense of ambiguity and literalizes Charley’s inner struggle between ‘light’ and ‘dark’. The blinds and confined space of the car forces the camera to stay close to the actors, making the scene more personal. A series of close ups between the two — action and reaction — add to the feeling of brotherhood. The “I coulda been a contender” line, during which Terry breaks eye contact with Charley to look out at the future he should have had, reflects how Kazan was forever shunned by the film industry after naming names, despite making what he calls his best films afterwards.
Pay attention to these details in this clip.
Cinematography: Elevation Changes
Elevation changes by characters and the camera define locations in terms of moral dilemmas. For example, the waterfront, where the longshoreman work and are controlled by the mob, is below the ships, and the mob office is literally below the dock. Terry is never seen in his own apartment — instead, he tends to his flock of pigeons on the roof near the heavens.
Throughout the film, characters are harmed by falling for and redeemed by rising above the mob, and this touches on several Catholic themes. The low level of the waterfront and the insistence of Father Barry once he moves outside of the church implies that the entire society must be redeemed, and Terry’s crucifixion, sanctification, and resurrection as a Christ figure are seen in the film’s ending scene (“On the Waterfront — What Makes this Movie Great? (Episode 87)”).
Terry’s Apotheosis
This scene serves as an apotheosis for Terry — after descending to the level of the mob to fight Friendly, he is momentarily incapacitated, covered in blood and unable to stand, representing his crucifixion. (In the meantime, the longshoreman refuse to work without Terry, sanctifying him and pushing Friendly off the dock into the water — the lowest level of all.) Terry is eventually resurrected and rises up the dock to lead the men back to work and freedom. Up until the last second, Kazan shows the inner experience of Terry through a series of blurry and lurching point-of-view shots as he moves towards the warehouse. Shooting instructions typically aren’t included in screenplays, but the importance of this shot is: the script specifically asks this to be “shot out of focus as Terry would see [the dock master] through a bloody haze” (Almereyda). Take a look!
Final Thoughts
Whether in the scalding heat of Elysian Fields or the biting cold of the New Jersey waterfront, Elia Kazan seeks to capture the fundamentals of humanity — grief, loyalty, desire, and a search for justice. By examining the causes of these morals through uniquely individual perspectives portrayed through intensely personal acting, we not only watch the stories he tells — we experience the mind of the director himself.
Works Cited
Almereyda, Michael. “On the Waterfront: Everybody Part of Everybody Else.” The Criterion Collection, 19 Feb. 2023, www.criterion.com/current/posts/2663-on-the-waterfront-everybody-part-of-everybody-else. Accessed 14 June 2023.
Barson, Michael and Wallenfeldt, Jeff. “Elia Kazan.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 May. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elia-Kazan. Accessed 18 May 2023.
Bauer, Pat. “On the Waterfront.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Mar. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/On-the-Waterfront. Accessed 14 June 2023.
Bradshaw, Peter. “A Streetcar Named Desire Review — Hard Times in the Big Easy.” The Guardian, 6 Feb. 2020, www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/06/a-streetcar-named-desire-review-vivien-leigh-marlon-brando-elia-kazan. Accessed 15 June 2023.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Stanislavsky system.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/art/Stanislavsky-system. Accessed 15 June 2023.
EAST OF EDEN (1955). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/images/144_1464219. Accessed 19 Jun 2023.
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Gentleman’s Agreement (1947). 1947. IMDb, www.imdb.com/title/tt0039416/mediaviewer/rm1529493760/?ref_=tt_ov_i. Accessed 19 June 2023.
Hiltzik, Michael. “Yes, Elia Kazan named names, then made ‘On the Waterfront’ to justify his treachery.” Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2020, www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-01-16/elia-kazan-named-names.
“I Coulda Been A Contender — On the Waterfront (6/8) Movie CLIP (1954) HD.” YouTube, uploaded by Movieclips, 6 Oct. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBiewQrpBBA&t=3s. Accessed 14 June 2023.
Interior of the Actor’s Studio. The Actors Studio, theactorsstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/10353095_10153759097505664_4941252230756023479_n_web.jpg. Accessed 19 June 2023.
Kael, Pauline. Review of A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951. The New Yorker. The New Yorker, www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/streetcar-named-desire. Accessed 15 June 2023.
Kazan, Elia, director. On the Waterfront. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1954.
— -, director. A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1951.
Mikulec, Sven. “Elia Kazan’s ‘On the Waterfront’ Is an Amazing Piece of Filmmaking.” Cinephilia & Beyond, cinephiliabeyond.org/elia-kazans-on-the-waterfront-is-an-amazing-piece-of-filmmaking/. Accessed 19 June 2023.
On the Waterfront (1954). 1954. IMDb, www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/mediaviewer/rm767108608/?ref_=tt_ov_i. Accessed 19 June 2023.
“On the Waterfront — What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 87).” YouTube, 22 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAlBMLUnN2E. Accessed 14 June 2023.
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“Rod Steiger Talks About Marlon Brando & the Taxi-Scene of On the Waterfront (1954).” YouTube, uploaded by Eyes on Cinema @RealEOC presents: Eyes on UFOs, 26 Sept. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TERYHzlp0Tc. Accessed 14 June 2023.
Schulberg, Budd. “Blood, Sweat and Fear.” The Guardian, 21 Oct. 2004, www.theguardian.com/film/2004/oct/22/3. Accessed 9 June 2023.
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STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, A (1951). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/images/144_1466818. Accessed 19 Jun 2023.
“Streetcar Named Desire’ | Critics’ Picks | The New York Times.” YouTube, uploaded by The New York Times, 12 Aug. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFOtE1FF2wQ. Accessed 15 June 2023.
Thomson, David. “Elia Kazan: Biggest Rat of the Pack.” The Guardian, 12 May 2011, www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/12/elia-kazan-martin-scorsese. Accessed 14 June 2023.
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*This content was originally a presentation for my Film Studies class.
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