Reflections on the role of the classic movie ‘On the Waterfront’ and the anti-communist witch-hunts

We’ve all seen the movie, and we’re all familiar with the iconic scene, when failed boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon Brandon) confronts his slick gangster brother Charley (Rod Steiger) in the back of the cab on its way to delivering Terry to his death for deciding to cooperate with an investigation into racketeering on the waterfront. The line ‘I coulda had class! I coulda been a contender!’ remains one of the most celebrated and recognisable in movie history.

On The Waterfront was written by Budd Schulberg (27 March 1914 — 5 August 2009) and was directed by Elia Kazan ( 7 September 1909 — 28 September 2003) and garnered eight Academy Awards, including an Oscar for best screenplay. The screenplay, the acting, the directing, the score all broke new ground in the art of cinema — in a movie devised and made as an apologia and justification for ‘snitching’ by two men who’d testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) against former associates, friends and comrades during the McCarthy era.

Schulberg grew up in a world of wealth and privilege in Hollywood as the son of studio mogul, B.P. Schulberg, a New Deal liberal. As a young man he claimed to have been so ashamed of his father’s wealth and status that he said of the luxury car in…