Salesman

Paul Brennan is "The Badger". Charles McDevitt is "The Gipper". James Baker is "The Rabbit" and Raymond Martos is "The Bull". However this is not yet another British gangster film from Guy Ritchie but rather a fly-on-the-wall documentary following these four door-to-door bible salesman as they go about their trade and shoot the breeze with one another. Selling for as much as $40 per ornate book, the target audience are mostly poor catholic families who are given a hard sell before being offered a range of payment methods. In the middle of a sales slum, we follow Paul Brennan as he tries to break his losing streak.

Probably the worst job I have done wasn't that bad but was when I was a cleaner 7 mornings a week while also going through university. It felt worse because I also worked weekend evenings in a bar. However I would happily do either of those again if the only other option open to me was telephone or door-to-door sales because to me it is a soul-destroying job. I know some people can excel at it but others scrape by on their commissions, trying to force products onto others that they wouldn't buy themselves. This documentary confirms my thoughts on the job as we follow Paul Brennan on sales calls, conferences and sales meetings. Those familiar with Glengary Glenross will know where they are already and personally I kept seeing Brennan as the Gill character from the Simpsons, frantically just trying to get by. The film doesn't provide much more insight than that because it is very much a fly-on-the-wall affair that lets the characters speak for themselves.

By doing this it lays bare the approach of the sales game. It is depressing for several reasons and it made me feel sympathy for Brennan as often as I felt repulsed by him. He doesn't care about those he is selling to and he lies, applies pressure and guilts his marks into buying something they don't need and often don't actually want. But it is easy to feel for him because he is doing a job. I have never had someone coming door-to-door astonish me with a service or product that I suddenly wanted, especially nowadays, if you want it and can afford it, you probably already have it, but the sales staff still need to sell and Brennan's way is the most basic approach. The Maysles brothers wisely stay out of the way and I was quite amazed at how unobtrusive their camera was even when the sales were in relatively confined rooms.

Overall this is a rather depressing film that could have had more in the way of insight but does well to stand back and just observe. Modern documentaries often lose that so in a way it was refreshing not to have talking heads throughout the footage. Could have been more then but the cold look at the sales business, the sellers and the potential buyers is well done and makes for engaging if rather downbeat entertainment.

As with Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies," the Maysles brothers' "Salesman" is truly a landmark for the "cinema verite" documentary movement of the 1960s. Although the former is shockingly realistic in a sensational way, "Salesman" is actually the more disturbing for showing the Hell-on-earth that marks the workaday world for most of humanity. If ever a film shows that most people "lead lives of quiet desperation," this is it. In my lifetime of viewing films, I've never seen a non-fiction film more affecting and poignant. That this film didn't make the AFI Top 100 is practically scandalous. Be forewarned, this is an oppressively sad, yet slyly funny, film that is not easy to watch. It speaks volumes about American business practices, the ties between business and organized religion, the exploitation of religious belief (and its perversion via materialism), the dehumanization of workers, the crushing wisdom that can come with aging, the scary mindset of suburban denizens, and a lot more. If ever anyone had the right to ask the question, "Is that all there is?" it would be Paul, an aging Bible salesman having trouble meeting his sales quota, who serves as the film's central character. The film is brutally honest, yet powerfully manipulative. It does beg the question: how much is real and how much is affected by the presence of the cameras? One does feel, after seeing this, that reality is just as bad as Dorothy Parker said it was. For those who fail, the American Dream is a nightmare. In short, a film you'll never forget.

This film is about the trials and tribulations of four door-to-door Bible salesmen in 1968, on the eve of when their occupation was about to become extinct. Of course, the filmmakers could not know that at the time, but this fact is what adds to the sadness of this film today. The salesmen are four New Englanders named Paul "The Badger" Brennan, James "The Rabbit" Baker, "The Bull" and "The Gipper", their nicknames being derived from their individual sales tactics. Despite the holiness of their products, this really is a cutthroat business, as is made evident in some of the sales meetings that are shown. The main character, "The Badger", reminds me of Jack Lemmon's character in Glengarry Glen Ross. Life - and his profession - have beaten him down, and none of his sales pitches are working as he talks to one indifferent potential customer after another. These guys are always looking for a new angle to make the sale, but usually just about everything they come up with is not successful. Remember, this was in the days when people were unafraid to open their doors to strangers, and equally unafraid to be rude to them. The film not only makes you feel what these unsuccessful salesmen are feeling, it a time capsule for the end of the '60s, and a portrait of an occupation that doesn't really exist anymore due to telemarketing, Internet sales, two-income families meaning nobody is home during the day, and finally the fact that adult strangers on your doorstep are assumed to be potential criminals.

Paul Brennan really seems to have the saddest story of the four. His sales are dwindling, and he is really too old to start over in another occupation. Paul's sales become so poor that at one point that he is partnered with a more aggressive salesman so Paul can observe his technique in the hope that something will rub off on Paul. This younger, sharper salesman, who obviously has not yet developed a tolerance for human frailty, is constantly snapping at Paul for his poor technique and unenthusiastic delivery. If you're an older person who has ever worked for a younger one, you know what I'm talking about. As sorry as you may feel for him though, when we see Paul using the possibly superstitious beliefs of his customers to get them to buy products they may not be able to afford, you have mixed feelings about the man. Is Paul purely being manipulative, or is he resorting to desperate means to survive? Probably a little bit of both is true. Paul realizes that his time as a salesman is coming to a close, and it's not like he has a big bank account to fall back on. Such career struggles are expected when you are in your 20's, but by the time you are Paul's age you are expecting something more...more job stability, more respect, more financial security.

The film does add some humor throughout the film to keep the viewing experience from being too much like a funeral for both Paul's career and the profession of door-to-door salesman itself. Sometimes the salesmen lighten up and even have some camaraderie in their conversations. Sometimes there is a funny remark from the "no sale" Boston housewives the salesmen encounter, and sometimes there are even funnier remarks from the salesmen as they leave a house where they've been refused. There's also an episode in a hotel pool in the middle of the night that is rather humorous.

I'd say that even though the film has a very dated look to it, you should watch it because what it has to say about the human spirit, aging ungracefully, choosing the wrong career, and then failing at that career is timeless.

Documentaries are a fairly pervasive genre in today's culture, and an increasing trend is to manipulate the footage in order to further the authentication of one's thesis. Albert and David Maysles' 1969 documentary 'Salesman' however, turns an unflinching eye on its' subjects, sometimes with unnerving and disturbing results.

'Salesman' follows four door-to-door high-end bible salesmen as they travel around the country. The four men have nicknames they've given each other, all describing their sales approach: The Rabbit, The Badger, The Gipper and The Bull. We hear most from The Badger (Paul Brennan) as he takes his leads and tries to pull himself out of a sales slump. The leads that most of the salesmen follow end up being poor Catholic families who can't even afford a dollar a week payment, but are at times talked into it anyway by the sales tactics these men employ.

The Maysles give us an absolutely fascinating look at the world of door-to-door sales, but it is also a disturbing door to open. The pressure that the salesmen use when trying to sell the product, and the struggle that the prospects exhibit, is difficult to watch. In one scene, Brennan goes to the door of a recent customer to pick up their down payment for another of the salesmen and pretty much refuses to take 'No' for an answer, telling her that he's the salesman's boss and is going to have to dock him a fee if she cancels the sale, eventually guilting this family who clearly cannot take on another installment payment into going on with the sale. On the other hand, we also see sales meetings where the pressure is turned on the salesmen themselves, so it's clear that the threats of unemployment are a definite motivator.

I wondered throughout the film if David Mamet had seen this film and subsequently used it as inspiration for 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. From the sales meeting where the manager threatens the salesmen to the characters themselves, I saw several clear comparisons. Brennan is Lemmon's 'Shel' character to a tee, and I subsequently couldn't help chuckling at the image of The Simpsons' character 'Gil'. Whatever specific inspiration 'Salesman' has provided, it is clearly an important film that does not soften its edges. 7/10

The camera follows four Bible salesmen as they follow up on names of Catholic parishioners in Boston and then Florida.

I can understand that the documentary is not for all tastes. There's really no narrative, while we know next to nothing about the four principals. Yet, the results, to me at least, are fascinating, if not entertaining. The four Bible salesmen are a harried crew, near the bottom of a commercial food chain. Pressure to sell goes from ownership to management to salesmen, and finally to prospective customers to buy. And throughout, the camera never wavers, at times lingering over a face in rather enigmatic fashion. Nor do the subjects ever acknowledge camera's presence-- quite a cinematic accomplishment. Importantly, these are ordinary faces, certainly not the Hollywood variety.

To me, the most interesting part are the working class customers. They can barely pay the bills they already have, let alone fork over an extra dollar a week. I'm guessing Badger's burnout comes from years of hustling people who should not be hustled. Of course, the pitch revolves around having a Bible with illustrations that will confirm a Catholic's faith and enrich their lives. I'm supposing the salesmen have to believe that at some level, otherwise how could they continue to pressure poor people to buy. And catch the ride by the ritzy Miami Beach hotels, right before the guys start knocking on wear-worn doors.

Overall, this is quite a remarkable 85-minutes, like nothing else I've seen. I'm not sure what to make of the result, that is, whether there's an intended point beyond the momentary. But either way, the unvarnished glimpses the film provides are definitely memorable.