Review of Salesman (1969) by Max M — 28 Nov 2008

Salesman is brilliant at both telling a story (it follows four men who are Bible salesmen outside of Boston, and focuses on one in particular whose life and career seem to be on a downward spiral) and in its cinematic technique of telling that story (Charlotte Zwerin's editing is particularly extraordinary) in what the filmmakers, Albert and David Maysles refer to as "Direct Cinema" - that is, what happens onscreen seems to be unfolding as it actually happens with no 'Voice of God' narrator explaining the action, as in other documentaries.

This picture also serves as an interesting juxtaposition (60s counterculture vs. low-income, blue-collar America) to the Maysles brothers follow-up film, Gimme Shelter, a masterpiece in it's own right, which documented The Rolling Stones' ill-fated Altamont Concert in December 1969.