Last night I didn’t sleep very well because I woke up thinking about how Donald Trump is just like Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront. Johnny is a mob boss who is always talking about how he likes people who are tough and he surrounds himself with big, burly guys. He talks about loyalty and expects it unconditionally. When he learns that there are people possibly meeting in a way that might undermine him or bring his crimes to light, Johnny sends a mole to listen and intimidate. He talks big. He threatens people, but when Terry actually goes after him, Johnny has his goons beat Terry down. Just like in Trumpland, everyone seems cowed by Johnny, and no one actually stands up to him, even when everyone knows how corrupt and terrible he is. Finally, Johnny doesn’t show any loyalty or concern or care for the people who have stood by him through and through. People are just objects, a means to an end, in his world.

Spoiler alert (seriously, if you haven’t seen it and don’t want it spoiled, don’t read the next sentence or so): at the end, Johnny is indicted and loses control of the union and power. The masses turn on him, no longer afraid, and join together to “run the union on the up and up,” as one worker says near the end.

I don’t agree with Elia Kazan’s behavior or the beliefs he displayed during the McCarthy witch hunts. I sometimes feel a little uneasy with the subtext to his film. However, the analogy to our current leadership* seems like it fits for me. I hope the Trump administration ends up like the movie, although with fewer dead people (I know, it’s probably too late).