Salesman

Salesman is a documentary that came out in 1969 and was produced by the Maysles brothers, Albert and David. It was also a part of the direct cinema movement. The Salesman documentary follows 4 men that are out selling bibles for a living. It seems to find a particular interest in the oldest man, Paul, who eventually loses his job. I think that the Maysles brothers wound up taking an interest in Paul because he would provoke emotion from the audience. This film was supposed to be strictly observational, but I feel that the man being observed sometimes aimed what they were saying at the camera, or somehow altered their actions because of the camera's presence. I think one major example of this is when Paul is singing to and talking to himself in the car. I don't think that Paul would have done this had he not been being filmed. Also, at one point, Paul takes the time to introduce each of the men and give a little background on each of them. This would definitely not be done if he were not being filmed. He aimed his statements directly at the camera.

There was little narration in this film, except for the very beginning of the film, and the rest of the time the men and their prospective buyers were the only speaking being done. I found that it was very hard to see and hear at some points in the movie when more than one person would be talking at a time. Also, I found the subject matter to be very dry, but very ironic because these men were out lying to sell bibles. They would pretend that they were in fact from the Church, when they were not at all. Overall, I felt that this documentary was a bit dry, and could have used a more interesting topic.