"On the Waterfront", which paints unions as corrupt and violent, plays on TV very frequently... no wonder. The director, Kazan, was one of the Hollywood ten who became a rat and survived the blacklist. Ratting wasn't enough? Then he made waterfront. Union bashing is about all that media monopolies will ever show.
Where can one hear anything good about unions on tv or radio... or hear much at all? One exception, Sally Fields made a pro-union movie and got away with it. Brando probably didn't know what we was doing. ************************************
Try "Matewan" or "The Wobblies" or "Reds". In general though, you're right. Capitalists own the product of their hirelings' labour and most capitalists don't like selling a message where class struggle is rewarded with power.
Brando was a left liberal and Kazan was too. Non-socialists tend to make a lot of political mistakes. That said, Kazan did direct some of the better films of the 50s e.g. "Pinky", "A Face in the Crowd" and "Viva Zapata!". The ILA was dominated by Mafia types. If "On the Waterfront" had been made about the ILWU, I would agree with you about union bashing in that film.
Mike B)
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