Salesman - Criterion Collection

Starring:Margaret McCarron, Melbourne I. Feltman, Jamie Baker, Raymond Martos, Paul Brennan (IX), Kennie Turner, Charles McDevitt (II)
Director: David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Arguably the best American documentary of the 1960s, Salesman was the pivotal film of the "direct cinema" movement championed by such influential filmmakers as Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, and (in this case) the Maysles brothers and their longtime collaborator Charlotte Zwerin. It catapulted Albert and David Maysles to international fame (later intensified with Gimme Shelter), and it remains the most powerful document of working-class America in the post-Kennedy era. As compelling as any fictional drama, the film follows four salesmen (nicknamed the Badger, the Gipper, the Rabbit, and the Bull, based on their particular on-the-job attributes) from Boston to Florida as they struggle to sell lavishly illustrated Bibles to reluctant, blue-collar customers as desperate to keep their money as the salesmen are to take it.

The film focuses on the anguished plight of Paul "the Badger" Brennan, an aging Boston-Irish veteran of the salesman circuit, weary of his job and unable to hide his exhaustion from customers and colleagues alike. "I don't want to seem negative," he says in one of the film's many dreary motel rooms, but Paul is negative, and meager sales reflect his attitude. The resulting portrait serves as a two-way mirror of hard-scrabble American survival, simultaneously humorous and heartbreaking, and so honestly revealing that no performance (with the possible exception of Jack Lemmon's in Glengarry Glen Ross) could ever hope to match its level of richly nuanced humanity. Door-to-door salesmen became dinosaurs with the advent of telemarketing and Internet retail, but Salesman is a timeless masterpiece of cinematic truth. --Jeff Shannon

Salesman - Criterion Collection
Average customer rating:

A timeless film about the dual enemies of aging and failure

Couldn't have been any better

Handing Tickets Out For God

The Best Documentary that has and will ever be made

Salesman

Salesman - Criterion Collection
Starring: Paul Brennan (IX) , Charles McDevitt (II) , James Baker (XXIII) , Raymond Martos , and Margaret McCarron
Director: Charlotte Zwerin , Albert Maysles , and David Maysles
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Harlan County, U.S.A. - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B00005KHJY
Release Date: 2001-09-04

Amazon.com

Arguably the best American documentary of the 1960s, Salesman was the pivotal film of the "direct cinema" movement championed by such influential filmmakers as Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, and (in this case) the Maysles brothers and their longtime collaborator Charlotte Zwerin. It catapulted Albert and David Maysles to international fame (later intensified with Gimme Shelter), and it remains the most powerful document of working-class America in the post-Kennedy era. As compelling as any fictional drama, the film follows four salesmen (nicknamed the Badger, the Gipper, the Rabbit, and the Bull, based on their particular on-the-job attributes) from Boston to Florida as they struggle to sell lavishly illustrated Bibles to reluctant, blue-collar customers as desperate to keep their money as the salesmen are to take it.

Customer Reviews:

A timeless film about the dual enemies of aging and failure.......2006-12-16

This film is about the trials and tribulations of four door-to-door Bible salesmen in 1968, on the eve of when their occupation was about to become extinct. Of course, the filmmakers could not know that at the time, but this fact is what adds to the sadness of this film today. The salesmen are four New Englanders named Paul "The Badger" Brennan, James "The Rabbit" Baker, "The Bull" and "The Gipper", their nicknames being derived from their individual sales tactics. Despite the holiness of their products, this really is a cutthroat business, as is made evident in some of the sales meetings that are shown. The main character, "The Badger", reminds me of Jack Lemmon's character in Glengarry Glen Ross. Life - and his profession - have beaten him down, and none of his sales pitches are working as he talks to one indifferent potential customer after another. These guys are always looking for a new angle to make the sale, but usually just about everything they come up with is not successful. Remember, this was in the days when people were unafraid to open their doors to strangers, and equally unafraid to be rude to them. The film not only makes you feel what these unsuccessful salesmen are feeling, it a time capsule for the end of the '60s, and a portrait of an occupation that doesn't really exist anymore due to telemarketing, Internet sales, two-income families meaning nobody is home during the day, and finally the fact that adult strangers on your doorstep are assumed to be potential criminals.

Paul Brennan really seems to have the saddest story of the four. His sales are dwindling, and he is really too old to start over in another occupation. Paul's sales become so poor that at one point that he is partnered with a more aggressive salesman so Paul can observe his technique in the hope that something will rub off on Paul. This younger, sharper salesman, who obviously has not yet developed a tolerance for human frailty, is constantly snapping at Paul for his poor technique and unenthusiastic delivery. If you're an older person who has ever worked for a younger one, you know what I'm talking about. As sorry as you may feel for him though, when we see Paul using the possibly superstitious beliefs of his customers to get them to buy products they may not be able to afford, you have mixed feelings about the man. Is Paul purely being manipulative, or is he resorting to desperate means to survive? Probably a little bit of both is true. Paul realizes that his time as a salesman is coming to a close, and it's not like he has a big bank account to fall back on. Such career struggles are expected when you are in your 20's, but by the time you are Paul's age you are expecting something more...more job stability, more respect, more financial security.

The film does add some humor throughout the film to keep the viewing experience from being too much like a funeral for both Paul's career and the profession of door-to-door salesman itself. Sometimes the salesmen lighten up and even have some comradery in their conversations. Sometimes there is a funny remark from the "no sale" Boston housewives the salesmen encounter, and sometimes there are even funnier remarks from the salesmen as they leave a house where they've been refused. There's also an episode in a hotel pool in the middle of the night that is rather humorous.

I'd say that even though the film has a very dated look to it, you should watch it because what it has to say about the human spirit, aging ungracefully, choosing the wrong career, and then failing at that career is timeless.

Couldn't have been any better.......2006-04-28

I saw this movie a few years ago and need to rent it again soon because I have nothing but fond memories of it. Anyone who has ever had any dealings at all with a salesman will love it - I promise. Watch as one salesman asks a woman who can't afford a bible for $50 if she could afford $2.50 a week for twenty weeks. Watch as he asks her if she thinks her home would be better if she had this bible in her house. These are the same kind of questions you are asked when looking for a car but the way it is shot in the "you are almost there" style makes many of the scenes heartbreakingly real. There is sadness all around in the faces of the salesman and there potential customers. One cannot help but feel moved by the plight of the salesman and the customers. It is amazing how the sales pitches of the salesman have not changed much in the past 40 years! Anyone who likes Errol Morris or John Cassavettes needs to see this film as soon as possible if not sooner.

Handing Tickets Out For God.......2006-01-05

The price on this is a bit steep, especially since the bonus materials are limited (though enjoyable). Nonetheless, I didn't regret spending the money. The Maysles brothers were such amazing and groundbreaking documentarians that anything of theirs that you can get your hands on is worth it. This film follows four very ordinary bible salesmen in the late 1960's as they ply their trade in the cold and snow of New England and then in the sunshine of Florida. The Maysles' focus in particular on one gentleman who clearly is not cut out for this work and is slowly but surely headed for the scrap pile. Despite the relative mundanity of the events, you find yourself transfixed as these men endure the high-powered mindwashing of their superiors and struggle to survive in a dying industry. Few films have ever so poignantly made the point that, though God may be good box office, no one really seems to give a damn about who buys or sells the tickets to the show.

The Best Documentary that has and will ever be made.......2005-09-28

Bible salesman will never be cooler, this shows a side of bible salesman that will never be shown again, it could be because they are no longer the same, or it could be that if anyone tried to re-capture what has already been, it would be called just another film, this is not just another film, this is a film with more power and humor than any REAL story will ever capture, SEE THIS FILM, SEE THIS FILM. I LOVE IT.

Salesman.......2005-08-23

This innovative, powerful film shines sobering light on the modern human condition. We witness a man who sees his way of life receding before his very eyes, leaving him with precious little to show for it. The sad, wrenching tale still delivers potent, thought-provoking impact.

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