A generation after Lee J. Cobb originated the role on stage and Fredric March did
the big screen version, Dustin Hoffman does a really great job as Willy Loman in
Death Of A Salesman in a made for television version. It's a bit more surreal than
the others but Arthur Miller's message about misplaced values certainly gets
across.
All poor Willy Loman wanted to be was be liked and that to him became a creed.
It's how you sell your product, it's how you sell yourself. He loved his family,
but he was always 'on'. And forever envious of brother Ben who went out and
took risks but saw the world.
Hoffman was years younger than March or Cobb, but with makeup he certainly
looks the part. Kate Reid plays the wife and John Malkovich and Stephen
Lang are sons Biff and Hap. They really function well as the Loman family
unit and the chemistry is real.
Seeing how much purchasing is now done on line, I wonder if a lot of the
message of Death Of A Salesman will be lost in the future. An audience in the
future might not know what a salesman is or does as personal contact in
buying and selling becomes less and less.
I certainly hope not.
