Without giving too much away, the story is about a man named Terry Malloy (played by Marlon Brando) who works at the docks. One day he witnesses a murder of one of the dock workers, Joey. Joey complained about the bad working conditions and mistreatment of workers at the docks. But his righteous attitude had become a nuisance to a big boss named Mr. Johnny Friendly who controlled all the operations at the docks as the head of the workers' union, and Joey got silenced by his thugs. Terry was indifferent to the incident at first, minding his own business. But the story takes a new turn when he sees Edie, a younger sister of now deceased Joey. Edie tries desperately to find out who killed her beloved brother with the aid of local priest Father Barry. Edie, kind of an under-nourished overly-proper Catholic girl, and Terry, an errand boy at the docks slowly get attracted to each other. At first Terry just tries to talk Edie out of doing her private detective kind of business with her brother's death. But there is a wakening of a conscience in him when he faces increasing intervention by Father Barry and helplessness of the girl who's becoming increasingly precious to him. Meanwhile, a subpoena reaches Terry, and Johnny worries that Terry may testify against them in court. So he tells Charlie Malloy, Terry's older brother and also a crooked lawyer working for Johnny, to talk Terry out of eating cheese (=to become an informant). Will Charlie able to succeed? Failure means his own death as well as his brother's...
All in all, director Elia Kazan (https://goo.gl/Cu5Jrf) does a magnificent job of drawing the best out of all of the actors. The camera work is especially effective in expressing conflicting emotions in Terry's mind. The music, which is done by Leonard Bernstein, who takes charge of the music for "West Side Story" seven years later, also plays a big role in making the movie as dramatic as it can be.
Without doubt it is a movie that has stood the test of time, and that is worth watching over and over again in order to appreciate it from many different perspectives such as acting, music, camera work, screenplay, to name a few. Six stars out of five. It's a must-see. Won't let you down! (https://goo.gl/1RvJtZ)
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