Category Archives: Art

Reflections: On the Waterfront

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Won 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director=Elia Kazan, Best Actor=Marlon Brando, Best Supporting Actor=Karl Malden, Best Story and Screenplay=Bud Shulberg. Musical Score by Leonard Bernstein

As a follow-up to Labor Day, and to prevent us from being piously maudlin about it, it might be appropriate to consider On the Waterfront, which the American Film Institute considers the 8th greatest American movie, and which is included on the Vatican’s list of 45 greatest films.

Karl Malden and Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront

Karl Malden and Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront is a stirring film about justice in the workplace and about liberation from oppression. It is certainly more than just a period piece about the late 40’s. It is built around the life of Fr. John Corridan, S.J., a labor priest played by Karl Malden. Marlon Brando plays the main character, Terry Malloy, a down and out ex-prize fighter and corruption’s accomplice who turns to struggle against union corruption along the New York waterfront. Malloy’s battle takes him all the way to the witness stand, where he finds himself testifying against corrupt union leaders. The film ends with Malloy being brutally beaten, but nonetheless leading the longshoremen in a way of the cross to unload a ship, victorious over the corrupt union bosses. In real life, however, there was no such victory.

The film was director’s Elia Kazan’s response to his own decision to turn in the names of his Hollywood contemporaries during Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communism hearings. He features Terry Malloy as the justified informer. Malloy’s conscience awakens to the stark reality of union corruption. Malloy is influenced by Fr. Barry’s powerful sermon applying belief in the Church as the mystical Body of Christ. It is Christ who has just died again in a slain longshoreman. “Boys, this is my Church. And if you don’t think Christ is down here on the waterfront, you got another guess coming.!” In John May’s view, Malloy is a Christ figure through whom, as we experience his suffering, we experience resurrection. Think of Malloy’s girlfriend, Edie, as a “Beatrice” who leads him through hell and purgatory.

An estranged friend of Kazan and Shulberg’s, Arthur Miller, presents the same political milieu of the early 1950’s as a time of hysteria in The Crucible. Only the fact that Marlon Brando agreed to play the lead enabled the film to be produced at all since the Hollywood community was blacklisting Elia Kazan. Blacklists were working several different ways. The script was turned down by 8 Hollywood studios. Another film to compare On the Waterfront to is John Ford’s The Informer with its incredible final words: “she forgives me.”

Question: should not Kazan and Shulberg have ended the film with Malloy’s death? On his deathbed, Fr. Corriden, who was the special advisor on the set, said that during the filming of the entire film there was an indescribable feeling among those present that a curious force was helping to direct the film. When the film was shown to longshoremen, the one thing they said that did not ring true was that not one of them would have thrown garbage at a priest!

Daniel Sheridan is Professor of Theology at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and former Director of the Online Theology Program.

Ancient Faith – Contemporary Devotion

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For me, ancient faith and contemporary devotion pair beautifully on this upcoming Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

For some, the Assumption of Our Lady is a difficult theological notion to understand. As catechists, it is important for us to be faithful to the doctrine without overwhelming the student. That reminds me of this little story…

The pastor was quizzing the third grade. “Can anyone tell me what the Assumption is?” An enthusiastic little boy raised his hand. Encouraged, Father called on him, “What can you tell us, young man?” The little boy stood and proudly announced, “Mary was Jesus’ Mother and we assume she went to heaven.” Now, as cute and humorous as that is, it doesn’t sufficiently address or define the mystery of the Assumption of Mary.

Among the Marian doctrines, the dogma of the Assumption stands with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a kind of contrast of balance and scope of God’s power and goodness in His loving regard for the human condition. By that I mean that in the Immaculate Conception, we see that God has intervened in human history with a miracle that has an essentially spiritual core, that is, sin and the efficaciousness of God’s mercy/grace. Mary is preserved from sin from the moment of her conception “in view of the merits of her Divine Son”, as the definition of the doctrine proclaims. On the other hand, the mystery of the Assumption is a miracle whose core is a physical reality. Her body and soul are the locus of God’s grace and power. Since no one could bear the idea that Mary died, or worse, decayed after death, the commonly held and persistent faith of the people has been that God took the Blessed Mother to Himself whole and entire, body and spirit when, as the solemn definition declared, she had “run the course of her life”. Even though the proclamation of this beautiful dogma is so recent, the belief in the Assumption of Mary is ancient. At the time when it was being considered for solemn definition some argued that there was no need to formally declare it since it was a prevailing and universal belief.

The dogma of the Assumption, promulgated as the wave of Marian devotion was cresting in 1950, stands as an expression of faith and devotion for some and as a stumbling block for reunion and interfaith dialogue for others.   Among our friends in the East, this holy mystery and feast day is expressed and celebrated as the Dormition of Mary, the Mother of God. As a dogma of our faith and as a holy day of obligation, we observe the Feast of the Assumption on August 15th.

HolinessMarian devotion today is fostered and fed by the modern voices of contemporary writers and artists.   Nowhere is this clearer or more powerfully illustrated than in the works of the contemporary artist Janet McKenzie. Most prominent for me is the evocative effect her Marian imagery has had on contemporary women. Her voice is one that speaks what so many would say if only they had the words, the talent. Janet McKenzie’s images of Mary resonant with the faith, spiritual sensibilities and experience of so many of the voiceless and marginalized of our world. This is profoundly evident in two recent works. The first book is Holiness and the Feminine Spirit–The Art of Janet McKenzie (Orbis, 2009). This wonderful book of paintings by Ms. McKenzie is graced with the pithy evocative essays of many contemporary writers, including Sister Wendy Beckett, Sister Joan Chittester, and Sister Helen Prajean. The second is the profoundly inspiring Way of the Cross by Sister Joan Chittester and Janet McKenzie (Orbis, 2013). The power of Sister Joan’s words is perfectly paired with the images of Ms. McKenzie.  It is a real meditation. My personal spirituality is continually stirred by Ms. McKenzie’s images. I recommend them to all who love to pray with images and experience them as channels of grace and meditative dialogue. I can think of no better way to celebrate the Marian Feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God.

Susan O’Hara teaches theology for Saint Joseph’s College Online.