Death of a Salesman/ Private Conversations
by Christian Blackwood, Volker Schlöndorff
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Charles Durning, Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Kate Reid, Stephen LangDirector: Christian Blackwood, Volker Schlöndorff
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Christian Blackwood
Producer: Christian Blackwood
Producer: Michael Nozik
Producer: Nellie Nugiel
Producer: Robert F. Colesberry
Writer: Arthur Miller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 136 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Death of a Salesman/ Private Conversations
Movie Review: Oh so depressing
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I watched the film version of Arthur Miller's classic play recently, I thought I was the only person on the planet who had not read or watched a version of his work. I had a good idea of the general outline of the whole thing before I went in, of course, thanks to years of pop culture references to Willy Loman, but I just never got around to sitting down for a look. Every once in awhile, I get frazzled that I haven't seen or read things that I feel every educated person ought to experience, hence it was way past time to see this one. So many different versions of the play exist, mostly made for television adaptations, that I worried a bit about which one was the best. I finally decided to view this 1985 Dustin Hoffman version simply because it was the only one I could find. Easy, huh? Yep, it was, but the subject matter of the play, and Hoffman's soul stirring performance as Willy Loman, did not make this an easy program to watch. "Death of a Salesman" is a depressing, sad play that makes you ponder ideas we Americans take for granted. Miller's work effectively tosses a bucket of ice water over the idea that the American Dream means everyone who works hard will ultimately succeed beyond his or her wildest expectations.
Willy Loman is a salesman who cannot escape the lure of past triumphs. He continually flashes back to earlier, halcyon days when his two sons, Biff (John Malkovich) and Hap (Stephen Lang), were in the prime of their life. These were good days, days full of big paychecks, hard work, a happy family, and sons whose athletic prowess promised great things. Biff especially looked as though he would have a wonderful future. His abilities as a football star virtually insured that he would end up at a great school, with even more promises to come. But a certain horrific event concerning Willy and his life on the road destroyed forever Biff's bright future, and life took a decidedly bleak turn in the intervening years. We gradually come to learn that Willy's existence has been one big failure. His age is a factor working against him at his firm, where the son of the original owner seeks to force Loman out. Debts of all sorts begin to press down on the family. And Biff and Hap, both over the age of thirty, largely failed in life. Hap is a schemer and womanizer who moves from one small job to another. Biff doesn't work at all, and even left for points unknown for a few years before turning up on the Loman doorstep. The only loyal trooper in the bunch is Willy's weathered wife Linda (Kate Reid), a woman that never fails to praise her husband's meager accomplishments.
What happens to those of us who fail at life? You certainly won't see these poor souls on television or in the movies, two mediums that tend to emphasize the glamorous, the successful, the wealthy, and the talented. The only place you will see the teeming millions not making the cut are on shows about crime and prison. Society doesn't wish to acknowledge people who slaved away for years without making appreciable gains. Perhaps that is why "Death of a Salesman" is such a tough program to watch; we see by increments a grown man crumble away to a pitiful fate despite his best efforts to succeed. And Willy Loman's descent into despair and ruin is about as painful as you could imagine. Hoffman plays the character as a withered, blundering, bland sort of fellow prone to frenetic outbursts of disassociated ramblings, which I think works in many ways. By appearing as an anonymous looking chap you wouldn't notice if you walked by him on the street, Hoffman manages to convey the sense of the "every man" that Miller's play strove to immortalize. Loman resembles most of us because he doesn't look glamorous, doesn't look successful, doesn't look wealthy, and doesn't look talented.
I should mention two other very important aspects of this production. First, the makers of this version of "Death of a Salesman" chose to shoot the program on a half film half stage set. Rooms in the Loman household don't have roofs or walls in certain places, and the neighboring buildings are obviously one dimensional structures. I'll bet this annoyed some viewers, but not me. I took the noticeably fake set pieces as a symbol of the failures in Willy's life, and as a symbol of the charade of the American Dream. Too, "Death of a Salesman" is a play and the producers probably wanted the production to have that feel. Second, the performances here are magnificent. John Malkovich proves once again that he's a performer capable of totally immersing himself in a role. I started to worry when I saw this actor running around in a football uniform tossing a ball around since I didn't think he looked like a teenager. The later scenes where he confronts his father blew my earlier conceptions out of the water. Malkovich delivers his lines with an emotional intensity that's tough to watch.
I wasn't as impressed with "Private Conversations," a lengthy behind the scenes look at the production. This extra on the disc provides little of interest with its inclusion of assorted blooper footage, a couple of interviews, and other odds and ends. Just skip "Private Conversations" and watch "Death of a Salesman" instead. The emotional power of Miller's play is undeniable, and stands as a cautionary tale about dreams and those who fail to attain them.
Summary of Death of a Salesman/ Private Conversations
DEATH OF A SALESMAN - DVD MovieGerman filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff's 1985 production of Arthur Miller's most famous play appeared squarely and quite hauntingly in the middle of the go-go economy of the Reagan-Bush years. Miller's story, set during the post-war boom period of the late '40s, concerns an aging, traveling salesman named Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman), who despairs that his life his been lived in vain. Facing dispensability and insignificance in a heated, youthful economy, Willy is not ready to part with his cherished fantasies of an America that loves and admires him for personable triumphs in the marketplace. But the reality is far more pitiable than that, and the measure of Willy's self-delusion and contradictions is found in his two sons, one (Stephen Lang) a ne'er-do-well gliding on inherited hot air and repressed feelings, and the other (John Malkovich) a mousy, retiring sort unable to reconcile--or forgive--the difference between his father's desperate impersonation of success and the truth. Schlondorff's remarkable cast explores Miller's rich subtext to great effect, though Hoffman--despite giving us a new model of Willy to contrast with Lee J. Cobb's definitive portrayal a generation before--is a bit insect-like and shrill in his approach. Malkovich, Lang, and Kate Reid (as Willy's long-suffering wife) are perfect, however, and the production is atmospheric and strong. --Tom Keogh
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