Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Salesman again

I've briefly mentioned the documentary Salesman before, in regards to director Albert Maysles. It's on again at 10:45 PM this evening as part of the TCM Spotlight on documentaries. Unfortunately, the movie is out of print on DVD. The TCM Shop has a listing for it, but you'll note that it's on backorder. (Note also that the DVD release date is back in 2001.) Amazon also lists it as currently out of stock, although they have the streaming thing going if you do that.

I'll stand by the one-paragraph synopsis I gave of Salesman a year and a half ago:

I have to admit to not having heard of the Maysles brothers until last summer when TCM ran the documentary Salesman, about of group of door-to-door Bible salesmen. It's a movie that's at times fascinating, but at times disturbing when you think about these salesmne almost preying upon the lower-class families who really can't afford the overpriced bibles that these people are selling. (To be fair, the salesmen got their leads from the churches as one or two scenes refer to congregations filling out cards. The parishioners brought it upon themselves.)

Salesman is well worth watching if you haven't seen it before.

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