Salesman [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Paul Brennan Director: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, Charlotte Mitchell Zwerin Albert Maysles

Overview

One of the most well respected of the cinema verite documentaries of the 1960's, this non-fiction film follows a group of real-life Bible salesmen for the Mid-American Bible Company as they ply their wares. The central figure in the film is Irish-American Paul Brennan, a 56-year-old of great wit who traipses door to door in an effort to sell the good book to Catholic housewives who really can't afford to buy but don't want to appear rude to a Church-sanctioned representative. The documentary, a collaboration by the Maysles brothers, also follows Brennan as he shares war stories with fellow Bible peddlers and attends management and sales meetings. The Maysles' next film was their classic documentary of the Rolling Stones fateful 1969 tour, Gimme Shelter (1970).

Product Details

Release Date:	03/10/2020
UPC:	0715515241014
Original Release:	1969
Rating:	G
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:31:00
Sales rank:	14,959

Special Features

Audio commentary from 2001 featuring directors Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin; New appreciation of the film by actor Bill Hader; "Globesman," a 2016 episode of the television series Documentary Now! that parodies the film, starring Hader and Fred Armisen; Television interview from 1968 with directors David and Albert Maysles, conducted by critic Jack Kroll; Audio excerpt from a 2000 episode of NPR's Weekend Edition profiling James Baker, one of the salesmen featured in the film; Trailer; SDH subtitles

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Paul Brennan	Actor
Charles McDevitt	Actor
James Baker	Actor,Actor
Raymond Martos	Actor

Technical Credits

Albert Maysles	Director,Director,Producer,Producer
Charlotte Zwerin	Director,Producer,Producer,Director
Dick Vorisek	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Whether peddling vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias, the door-to-door salesman is a uniquely American archetype, and one that comes under fascinating scrutiny in David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin's landmark 1969 documentary, Salesman. This exquisitely crafted film follows four Bible salesmen -- nicknamed "The Badger," "The Gipper," "The Rabbit," and "The Bull" -- as each makes his way to a national sales meeting in Chicago. The Maysles vividly capture their motel-room life on the road and their attempts to inveigle their way into living rooms to promote "the best seller in the world." Perhaps the most moving of the four hawkers is The Badger, who seems caught in the downward spiral of negative thinking that spells doom for a salesman's success. Splendidly photographed in black-and-white, Salesman epitomizes the cinema verité documentary style (also known as "direct cinema") that emerged in the 1960s. Scenes unfold as if the camera weren't present, making the subjects seem unnervingly candid and authentic. With no narrator, no musical score, no talking-head interviews, and no contrived plotline, Salesman feels remarkably intimate. Together with their legendary Rolling Stones documentary, Gimme Shelter, which followed the next year, Salesman solidified the Maysles' position among the great documentary filmmakers, such as D. A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

Though the Maysles brothers had made several documentaries about celebrities (Showman!, on film producer Joseph E. Levine; and What's Happening: The Beatles in the USA), it was a group of Bible salesman who provided them with their breakthrough to a larger audience. Critical acclaim and showings at theaters specializing in foreign and independent product made Salesman the must-see documentary of 1969 and brought much attention to the cinéma vérité movement. In the late '60s, Paul Brennan and his colleagues come off like throwbacks to another era: men dressed in conservative suits working on their sales prospects one at a time, face-to-face. True to the precepts of cinéma vérité, the Maysles (and their co-director Charlotte Zwerin) don't try to pass judgment on their subjects, though it's difficult to determine whether the filmmakers hit Brennan at a bad time (he has trouble making any sales on camera) or they are recording a metaphorical death of a salesman.

All Movie Guide - Tom Wiener