Thinking about Terry Malloy.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront," written by a former mentor of mine, Budd Schulberg.

The script below recounts my favorite scene. Not Terry and Charlie in the back of the cab, but Terry and Johnny on the docks.

I have the habit of too much speaking my mind. 

I will watch myself more in the future.

Terry walks compulsively down the ramp to the office.                              

TERRY                  (shouts)              

Hey, Friendly! Johnny Friendly, come out here! 

Johnny comes out of his office followed by his goons.                              

JOHNNY                 (shouts)              

You want to know the trouble with you? You think it makes you a big man if you      can give the answers.                               

TERRY         

Listen, Johnny—                              

JOHNNY        

Go on— beat it. Don't push your luck.                               

TERRY         

You want to know somethin'—?                         

JOHNNY        

I said beat it! At the right time I'll catchup with you. Be thinkin' about it. 

As he starts to turn back into his office, Terry advances, steaming  himself up.                          

TERRY                  (louder)              

You want to know something? Take the heater away and you're nothin'— take the good goods away, and the kickback and the shakedown cabbage away and the pistoleros—    (indicating the others)               —away and you're a great big hunk of nothing—       (takes a deep breath as if relieved) Your guts is all in your wallet and your trigger finger!                             

JOHNNY                 (with fury)           
Go on talkin'. You're talkin' yourself right into the river. Go on, go on... .                              

TERRY                  (voice rising defiantly)             

I'm glad what I done today, see? You give it to Joey, you give it to Nolan, you give it to Charley who was one of your own. You thought you was God Almighty instead of a cheap— conniving—good-for-nothing bum! So I'm glad what I done— you hear me? —glad what I done!                            

JOHNNY                 (coldly)              

You ratted on us, Terry.                             

                               

TERRY                 (aware of fellow longshoremen watching the duel)            

From where you stand, maybe. But I'm standing over here now. I was rattin' on myself all them years and didn't know it, helpin' punks like you against people like Pop and Nolan an'... .