Fantastic!

best movie i've ever seen.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Four relentless door-to-door salesmen deal with constant rejection, homesickness and inevitable burnout as they go across the country selling very expensive bibles to low-income Catholic families.The Maysles brothers decided they wanted to be the first to make a nonfiction feature film (which turned out to be "Salesman") after learning that Truman Capote had made the claim that his newly released book "In Cold Blood" was a nonfiction novel. The film was made on a low budget; just under seven minutes into the film, one of the two cameras used can be seen in the shot. The hand-held microphone used to record the film's sound is visible in other shots.When Salesman was completed, there were challenges in showing the film. As the Maysles brothers tried to get distribution, they were told that the content was too depressing and realistic for the public. Indeed, there are depressing aspects. But even more, this tells me two things: one, it is no surprise that door-to-door salesmen have died out, because this approach is pretty awful, forcing people to purchase something they do not want and cannot afford.But what is even stranger is the sale of the Bible. $40 for a Bible in the 1960s? I feel like any corner bookstore would have sold one for under $5 easily, and didn't most people already own one? And then you see these men interacting away from customers, and they are rather coarse men, not what you might call the most principled Christians. Is this right? Pushing of the Bible by people who clearly are not strict adherents?

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.

Like the salesman in this film, this movie is also a hard sale to the normal audience. It's also hard to find. Unless you happen to catch the film on TCM or a really old library. You might not know of this movie. It's really hard film to watch, its moves really slowed and nothing about it really states out in my opinion. There is no voice over, no music cues, or no title card to tell us what is happening, just a film shot and cut on 16mm about people doing their job. It's feels like a low budget Mad Men episode with bad filming in some scenes. One of the two cameras used can be seen in shot in the film. The hand-held microphone used to record the film's sound is visible in other shots. The film also get flipped horizontally, as evidenced by the parts in the men's clothes and hairs standing in a weird direction. It's weird in a way, and shows how limited they were in filming. Cloud of smoke from the chain-smoking and whiskey drinking that becomes a measure of the characters' empty lives. The Maysles Bros. did a wonderful job with this film as it follows four salesmen (nicknamed the Badger, the Gipper, the Rabbit, and the Bull, based on their particular on-the-job attributes) from Boston to Florida as they struggle to sell lavishly illustrated Bibles to reluctant, blue-collar customers as desperate to keep their money as the salesmen are to take it. The film mostly focuses on the anguished plight of Paul "the Badger" Brennan, an aging Boston-Irish veteran of the salesman circuit, weary of his job and unable to hide his exhaustion from customers and colleagues alike. He always talk in bizarre rants full of mumbles complains. Surprising there isn't a lot of action in the film. By action, I meant, we don't see really mean, or crazy people, the salesman has to dealt with. There is little amounts of scenes with people closing doors on them. Most of the customers, are respectable, and seem normal who gives the salesman the time to pitch what they are selling before saying no. So unlike today's society, where if you walk to somebody's front door, you're more like get a slam onto your face, before you finish a sentence. Anyways, we hear about most of how the sale went in the film's many dreary motel rooms scenes rather than seeing it in person. The film makes it clear, however, that the salesman are also under enormous pressure by their boorish boss. 'The next man that gets off base with me, I"m gonna tag him out'. He is quoted to be saying to them. He's the boss that every man probably doesn't want to have. In my opinion, spreading the good word of the lord should be free and I find it funny that these salesmen is using people's beliefs to make an extra buck. Reminds me a bit of fake shepherds tempting and scamming people to buy their way into heaven. I would also like to hear more about the struggle of being away from home and family for long periods of time, but what he heard are talks about boring lingos. At less, there was a small scene in the middle where the men decide to go swimming to give us something new. Like door to door salesmen over the years, got replace by amazon and Ebay so has Cinema Verite fallen out of vogue, replaced by filmmakers telling stories rather than showing them. This movie isn't for everybody, but if you happen to find it. Give it a watch.

You know, I'm VERY open minded when it comes to different types of film, whether its fiction or non-fiction. However, I can't see what people enjoy about this documentary... nor can I see it as "Criterion Collection" material. This film can be summed up like this:1. Salesman approaches possible customer; 2. Salesman explains all paying plans; 3. Possible customer is not interested; 4. Salesman continues pushing; 5. Possible customer still not interested; 6. Salesman keeps pushing; 7. Possible customer puts foot down; 8. Salesman gives up; 9. Salesman complains to other salesmen; 10. Start back at step #1 and repeat entire process until 90 minutes are up.That's it. This "documentary" redefined the term "monotony". Usually a documentary is made up of narration, photos, interviews, and b-roll footage. Imagine just 90 minutes of nothing but b-roll footage. No narration. No interviews. No photos. Just a camera running with some of the footage thrown together in the editing process. Also, all four of the salesmen seemed too similar to really get to know them. The only one I can remotely remember was the skinny one who kept breaking out into the voice of an old Irish woman. In short, remember the feeling you had after seeing The Blair Witch Project for the first time? Same reaction here. Almost the same concept as well: A "documentary" that is nothing but b-roll footage and has a bunch of people doing the same thing over and over again and complaining about it. Like I said, I'm usually pretty open minded about film in general, and I tried as hard as I could to respect this film, but it just fell flat and I left wanting that hour and a half of my life back. The 4 stars I gave out of 10 were more or less pity stars for the effort these people tried in making some type of documentary. There are so many deeper documentaries out there, and this doesn't even come close.