Salesman

This documentary, made by the Maysles brothers in 1968, records the dying out of door-to-door salesmanship in America by following the lives of four men trying to make a living by selling Bibles. Now, to me, that premise was quite intriguing and I was rather looking forward to this real-life version of ‘Death of a Salesman’ but unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way. The film is called ‘Salesman’ and yet it follows the exploits of four salesmen which, though interesting, is unhelpful and confusing. One is given slightly more attention than the others (the oldest one I think) and in him we see the fascinating and tragic character of a man whom the world has left behind and who is losing all sense of purpose in his life but won’t admit it to himself. A great story. So why not focus in on that story? Why not concentrate on one narrative and present us with a clear protagonist? These are the questions I found myself asking of Salesman. However, I let it off because it is old and a classic, made at a time when documentary was still new. I have heard it described as a “landmark documentary” but I’m afraid I have to disagree. It is a good enough documentary recording what is definitely a ‘landmark’ in history but it itself, in my opinion, is nothing all that special. Arthur Millar does a better job.