Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1999 17:59:43 -0600 From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Check-out time References: <l03130302b2e3bcd53141@[209.54.19.86]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
rayrena wrote:
> "On the Waterfront" is one of my favorite films, the
> symbolism of which I always assumed was aimed at the cowards who were
> afraid challenge the blacklisters.
>
I have never given On the Waterfront much conscious thought, but I can say that when I saw it on its first release in the '50s (at which time I was not only a cold-war liberal but enjoyed a top-secret clearance from NSA), I just took it for granted (as I think most everyone did) that it was among other things an anti-communist film. It belongs with all those western epics that began with the Virginian (or perhaps with modern interpretations of the *Odyseey*) and celebrate the triumph of the abstract hero coming from nowhere to confront and defeat collectivist evil.
Carrol