to the 971 people who gave this 1 star...
I'm not trying to attack any of you, but I just want to know the reason that you didn't like this movie. Was it because it's an old movie, or that you weren't a fan of the plot, or something else?
shareI think many people who vote on this site don't have the ability to understand what a 1 star rating means; they confuse "the lowest of the low in films" with "this movie bored me". I rarely give movies a 1 vote, even if they're bad (I usually go for 2 or 3 if they have at least one redeeming quality). An example of a movie I gave a 1 rating is Scary Movie (one of them, at least). So, if I were to compare it with On the Waterfront... um, ok... there's no comparison, really. It's like saying On the Waterfront has a bad script, bad direction, all the actors have extremely poor performances, the art direction is crap, the music is crap, etc. This is what you take into account when reviewing a movie.
There's also the possibility of trolls voting it 1 to make it slip lower in the Top 250, but I doubt it, since it's not that high.
Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.
First off, this thread is about 2% of the respondents to this poll. The consequent discussion has been a pretty strange assortment of mistaken notions.
Yet there is one general idea that caught my attention and that was about the political nature of this film, when it was made, why was made, and what the characters stood for. Every bit of that is irrelevant.
A creative work must stand on its own. It will not suffer descriptions, critiques, or any substantiation to communicate its message. When you hear authors describe their stories and photographers described their images they have betrayed their craft. The message must come from the work itself.
It is inviting to try and understand a piece of work in the context of the world that comes from, it's times, but that is only gossip and the self-aggrandizement of discussion. Even this site serves that same function in that it creates buzz and interest and ultimately affects market share. That has nothing to do with the expression of the creative work. That is just a marketing bonus.
In cinema all you have is what you see on the screen and it either works or it doesn't. The lights go down, the projector rolls and the lamp is lit; the screen comes alive. Nothing else matters.