“Salesmen” (1968)

This landmark 1968 documentary follows the efforts of four middle aged bible salesman as they attempt to ply their trade in middle America.  A pitiless character study of desperation and disillusionment, it has all the high drama of the great plays of Arthur Miller and David Mamet.  Like Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross it reflects on the dehumanising effects of capitalism in action, as cynical, bitter men without the least trace of religious faith push over priced copies of the good book on the guilty and the guileless.

A collaboration between the brothers Albert and David Maysles and editor Charlotte Zwerin, it employs the technique of “direct cinema”, eschewing any voice over narration or to camera interviews in favour of a close examination of its subjects in daily life, filmed as unobtrusively as possible.  Remarkably, neither the salesmen themselves, their bottom line quoting boss or the impoverished clientele ever betray knowledge of the camera or crew.  The result is unselfconscious behaviour of the rawest kind.  Few pieces of fiction approach in poignancy the closing moments, when abject despair overcomes one of the four as he realises his days on the road are numbered.