On the Waterfront (1954 Elia Kazan)

The first three minutes and 40 seconds of Batman Begins did not endear itself to me.
Instead, this powerful study of corruption amongst longshoremens' union, confronted by dim but principled ex-boxer Marlon Brando.

Atmospheric photography from Boris Kaufman and music from Elmer Bernstein.

With Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, Leif Erickson, James Westerfield, Tony Galento, John F Hamilton, Rudy Bond, Martin Balsam (uncredited).

Written by Budd Schulberg*. Cause of some controversy as Kazan ratted to the HUAC on fellow film makers, and may have then created this to salve his own conscience.

*And, I read subsequently on IMDB, that Robert Siodmak had worked on the script for five months, having optioned the newspaper series on which it was based, when it was titled 'A Stone in the River Hudson'. He successfully sued legendary shit Sam Spiegel for $100,000 but received no screen credit. (Source: J. Greco, The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood: 1941-1951, United States.)