Friday, April 27, 2012

Salesman (1968)

Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Door-to-door Bible salesmen peddle their wares to suburban housewives with no money. The film eventually focuses on one of them, "The Badger", who is having a particularly hard time making sales. The constant rejection has placed him in a vicious circle of negativity. Many of the in-home sales pitches become uncomfortable: the salesman desperate to make a sale, but the homeowner obviously in desperate financial straits. It makes you question their profession and provokes a sort of anger towards the local churches which condoned this kind of activity, even if it did occur nearly a half century ago. As a side note and distraction, I have never witnessed so many people constantly smoking cigarettes in any movie.

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