Priest's Crucifixion Message

Karl Malden's priest takes the longshoremen to task when he refers first to Christ's crucifixion and then further application when applied to the people being wronged through the corruption and injustice going on.

Looking back at the film you can see where each of the principal players, and even some not so, faced their own crucifixion as it were.

Eve Marie Saint's character faced it when she had to decide whether to return to school and read about injustice as opposed to facing it in her own neighborhood.

Her father faced it when he told her he and her mother saved nickels and dimes to send her away to school for protection and then have her tell him she was staying put to fight for his son and her brother.

Rod Steiger faced his crucifixion in the back of that car when he realized letting his brother go meant his own death at the hands of the man he worked for all those years to get ahead.

The adolescent Golden Warrior boy on the roof faced his when he realized that Brando's character was going to side with law and order instead of carry on the status quo of intepreting all cooperation with police as wrong in itself.

Brando's character faced his crucifixion repeatedly as others took their turn in shining light into his soul. He grew to resent his conscience and following it. At last he faced his own death and went face to face, toe to toe with Lee J. Cobb's mobster character and nearly died physically for doing so.

All of these died to themselves, faced a crucifixion of their self wills. Some came out the better for it, some not.

There were three crosses on Calvary. God got crucified, the repentant thief, and the unrepentant thief.

Everybody gets crufified. No body leaves this life without facing that part of themselves.