Bearing the Brunt of the Cold War: From The Hook to On the Waterfront as a Creative Collaboration

Arthur Miller’s unproduced screenplay The Hook was aborted prematurely under the pressures of complex political and personal circumstances in the early 1950s, splitting into two works: Elia Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront and Miller’s 1955 play A View from the Bridge. Questions have arisen about the similarities between Kazan’s film and Miller’s unmade movie, with scholars exchanging critical attacks over plagiarism charges. By revisiting the ‘waterfront’ controversy, this paper examines Miller’s unpublished typescript in connection with Kazan’s film, hoping for new insights into not only their respective works but also their turbulent relationship during the early Cold War. The similarities between the two works stem from the two artists themselves, especially regarding their shared outlooks on human beings and social conditions. Thus, the issue should be not so much about plagiarism as collaboration, i.e., artistic visions and political convictions Miller and Kazan shared as well as the circumstances under which they had to abandon their joint project.