On the Waterfront/Tear Jerker

• Terry Malloy's taxi ride with his brother Charley the Gent. Today, most folks may know the powerful line "I could have been a contender ..." as a throw-away quote, as if a hackneyed joke. In context, however, it's quite different. It sums up Terry's entire life of lost and stolen chances and his realization of just who he was and how he got there and that for all his tough bravado he really was nothing but a bum, a pawn in someone else's game. It sets the stage for his climb out of futile nothingness to his own final crowning moment of glory. It is also a reminder of just how good an actor a young Marlon Brando was.