Marlon Brando is renowned as one of Hollywood’s greatest-ever actors, with his most celebrated performance coming in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather. Yet this movie isn’t the one with the highest percentage score out of Brando’s films on Rotten Tomatoes. Although The Godfather does score an enviable 97% on the aggregated movie review site, another crime classic in which Marlon Brando plays the lead role has an even higher score. Elia Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront is Brando’s highest-scoring work on Rotten Tomatoes, with a whopping 99% score.

Of course, It’s not like Coppola should feel offended because his seminal gangster movie has slightly less of a critical consensus around just how great it is than On the Waterfront. Both Coppola’s and Kazan’s best collaborations with Brando are some of the greatest movies ever made, and The Godfather still outranks On the Waterfront in Rotten Tomatoes’ 300 Best Movies of All Time editorial list, thanks to the sheer volume of film criticism in its favor. Nevertheless, On the Waterfront, which won Marlon Brando his first Oscar, is an exceptionally high-scoring movie on the site in percentage terms.

On The Waterfront Is Marlon Brando’s Highest-Scoring Movie On Rotten Tomatoes

On The Waterfront Received Stellar Reviews

Elia Kazan’s 1954 crime classic On the Waterfront tells the story of one of Hollywood’s first genuine anti-heroes, Brando’s Terry Malloy, a former boxer who stands up to mob union boss Johnny Friendly. The movie that led Marlon Brando to win the Oscar for Best Actor after four consecutive nominations has enormous critical consensus around it, with an incredible 99% score out of 114 reviews collated on Rotten Tomatoes.

Only five other movies in the history of cinema have more reviews on Rotten Tomatoes while equalling or bettering On the Waterfront’s favorability percentage on the site: Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential, Casablanca, Akiro Kurasawa’s Seven Samurai, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, and Toy Story 2. Notably absent from this list is Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, which nevertheless remains near-universally acclaimed by the movie critics aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why On The Waterfront Outscores The Godfather On Rotten Tomatoes

How Their Reviews Compare

It can’t be overstated that The Godfather has an overwhelming critical consensus in its favor, with 97% of 152 reviews about the movie aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes giving it a positive rating. In fact, it’s one of the most acclaimed movies of all time. Nevertheless, it’s surprising that the film that most commonly tops critics’ audience polls for the greatest films of all time doesn’t have the highest percentage score on Rotten Tomatoes among Marlon Brando’s best movies.

More than a 2% difference, it’s worth exploring why The Godfather doesn’t have as much critical consensus around how great it is as On the Waterfront does. Since the time of its release, certain critics have found The Godfather’s story too sensationalist for it to be deemed a masterpiece. Ironically, this was Francis Ford Coppola’s initial view of Mario Puzo’s original Godfather novel, before he went ahead and made a movie out of it. On the other hand, the movie is occasionally dismissed as pretentious, or too focused on revenge without any moral scruples around this question.

These are the main reasons why 3% of critics listed on Rotten Tomatoes have rated The Godfather negatively. On the Waterfront, meanwhile, was less controversial when it was released, and had already been canonized as a great of Hollywood’s Golden Age by the time The Godfather came around. A small minority of critics also find fault with Brando’s iconic performance as Don Vito Corleone, deeming it caricaturish or lacking effort, while his more physical performance as Terry Malloy is difficult to argue with on any level.

It’s undeniable that both of these crime movies deserve their towering stature in the cinema industry. On balance, it might not be a bad thing for The Godfather that it rubbed a few critics up the wrong way, as most great art tends to do. Still, On the Waterfront can rightly claim to be the Marlon Brando movie with the fewest detractors.