Review of Death of a Salesman (1985) by Alex F — 07 Jul 2011

A made-for-television play adaption from "Arthur Miller" which revolves around a man named "William Loman"(Dustin Hoffman) who spent his working life as a stuggling travelling salesman. He comes home from a work trip one day alot earlier then expected because he is no longer able to drive so therfore can't particulay do his job. We are soon introduced to his son "Biff"(John Malkovich) who is as of now unemployed and was once working as a farmhand in the west and other son (Stephen Lang) who is somewhat of a stud and seems happy with life we don't know much else about him other then that though.

Because of "Willy's" health his wife "Linda"(Kate Reid) suggests that he asks his boss for the possibility of prehaps a office job. We soon learn some disturbing things about "Willy" suddenly on the first night of "Biff's" return we notice "Willy" talking to himself or imagined images of people (one being an old friend) and yes something is not quiet right here. The brothers are very worried and we find that "Biff" never really did get along with his father and now is making it a top priority to fix there relationship. To make things worse as "Willy" tries to get back to work atleast working an office job he is refused. The boys mom soon informs the guys that they have been suffering from financial issues and that there father has become suicidal. I won't give anything more plot-wise away but i'm sure you get the picture this is basicly about the overall character portrayl of "Willy" and his mental-state to his struggiling family trying to help him.

Over the few years of being a true film buff ive begun to think very highly of "Dustin Hoffman" he's one of my top 5 favourite actors as every character he plays is allways so on point and quiet unexpectedly I found this to be his greatest performence he's ever done. He was believeable in every aspect as this relatively old man that has become fed up with life and has completely lost touch with reality. His emotions are so beleiveable, in-depth and heart-felt there was nothing flawed about it as this somewhat insane guy he manged to mix deep emotions with the occasional flash of humor, just watch this film to see what I mean.

"John Malkovich" also gave prehaps his best performence just from what ive seen ofcourse which is not actually that much atleast compared to the amount ive seen "Hoffman" in. His character built-up tremendosly throughout he seemed allmost careless towards his father at first but as it went on his emotions kept evolving and he even had some great scenes going face to face with the one and only so I was extremely impressed with his performence aswell both were the very definiton of "oscar-worthy", it certinitely makes me wanna get up to date with more films starring "Malkovich".

"Stephen Lang" and "Kate Reid" both worked very well aswell to keep us as veiwiers engaged in this one of a kind powerful drama but all the praise goes to the two leading actors.

Honestly, what an unfairly underrated film indeed. I'd never even heard of it before renting it out yet it's a masterpiece. I mean I did find it in the "classic" section in my dvd rental store but i'm still suprised that not a single fellow film lover has told me about this because it's one of the greatest films ive seen in recent memory. All in all I have nothing to complain about I havent seen the actual play performed before but I could imagine this did a good job in honoring it because if it didn't it atleast did a great job in honoring the very art of cinema.

The direction from "Volker Schlondorf" was very impressive his amount of detail put into the characters and atmosphere was just amazing he managed to focus deep into the characters emotions and from this style we were able to feel tension straight from conflicts themselves. Very strategic indeed, the setting for this film was very well planned out during the film it actualy feels and looks like your really watching a play. It's a very sad film but the performences make it entertaining aswell as being well, very sad and overall it's just a beautiful film. Please take my word for it, this one is not worth missing...