In his notes for his Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky scribbled a line about “the complete resignation of fate.” Though not programmatic, his Symphony No. 5 can be seen as a journey from that resignation to an eventual climactic triumph. Similarly, Elia Kazan’s 1954 movie On the Waterfront follows a dockworker who famously “could have been a contender,” now speaking out against organized crime and challenging a system stacked against the common man. Leonard Bernstein’s impassioned film score elevates this one man’s crusade to the level of the universal.