Salesman

Sales work hasn't changed in decades. It still involves coercing potential customers into buying something they probably don't need. You hear many sales spiels in Salesman, a documentary about several bible salesman.

The film focuses on four men, all with nicknames. There's the Gipper, the Rabbit, the Badger, the Bull. They go from city to city in the American southeast, get names from local churches and then wear down their shoe leather and car tires to try to convince families to buy an expensive bible and other accoutrements. Once the sale is made though, their feet are heading towards the door and their mindset is already on the next sale.

The men are not above wheedling, guilt-tripping, hard selling, flattery, all manner of persuasion. Even when poor families can't commit to a purchase, the men continue to pitch as they're packing up their bags. Every vague interest in the bibles are an opening for the guys to whip out their order books. Their hard sell is pretty much mandated by their employer, who implies that if the bibles don't sell, it's the men's fault--expressed in a depressing company meeting that is framed as a pep talk.

The job doesn't look very fulfilling for the guys, and in fact one man, Paul (the Badger), begins to be depressed and frustrated by his lack of sales. At the beginning of the film they are jovial and talkative, but by film's end they are pensive and introspective. You can see their life on the road is not glamorous at all, downtime is spent smoking in their hotel room or role-playing to perfect their pitch. Little of their personal lives are shown but through dialogue you do see some of them are married.

What drives these men, why choose this job over others? How do they feel peddling something that should mean a lot to the devout but treated as a commodity or status symbol? These questions aren't openly answered but they must be in the men's minds constantly, or shoved back so as to not think about it.

Despite being made in 1968, by the well-known team of documentary brothers, David and Albert Maysles, and their longtime collaborator Charlotte Zwerin, this film still has a fresh and relevant feel, told plainly and without melodrama. The poster for Salesman shows Jesus carrying some product cases and the film is reminscent of later films Paper Moon and What Would Jesus Buy? The story does focus more on some men than others, but manages to have a beginning, middle, and end; it's like the real life Glengarry Glen Ross.

The camera work is sharp and clean. The Maysles know how to use B footage to add to their story, especially that involving Paul when he gets lost in what he thinks is a "Muslim" area of Miami, the Opa-locka community (due to street names like Ali Baba, Sinbad and Sesame).

The Maysles also made The Grey Gardens (1976), and documentaries about artists such as Orson Welles, Vladimir Horowitz, The Rolling Stones (Gimme Shelter), Marlon Brando, The Beatles, and Muhammad Ali. David died in the late 80s but Albert is still a working documentarian.