Salesman

It took me a while, but I finally tracked down a copy of Salesman and sat down to watch it tonight. I was highly impressed, and can honestly say it's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Made by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, it's an exploration of door-to-door salesman, no more, no less.

The film really has no agenda of its own. It's simply a well-crafted document of one particular way of life. It follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they struggle to make quotas and (sometimes) succeed out on the road. However, it really doesn't try to portray them as anything they're not. They are men, simply making a living, doing what they do.

The first thing most people think of when they think of a salesman is "Oh, those annoying bastards who are always calling me up and ringing my bell?" I was worried that the film might try too hard to justify their jobs, or at the same time, that it might completely poke fun at it and put it down. It does neither, like I said, it just shows what it's like, not only for the salesmen, but for their potential customers as well. These guys are really good, though. Anything the customer might throw at them, no matter how disinterested they might seem, the salesmen always have a quick and witty reply ready, so much that that you have to wonder- how do they do it?

The film almost challenges the viewer, in some ways, because it doesn't take one particular side. The salesmen are incredibly pushy towards their customers almost all of the time, yet people still buy from them, enough to make a living. Yes, they're annoying, but the same people that they're annoying are the ones buying their wares, so is anybody really at fault? It's the way the film breaks things down like that, that truly make it a brilliant documentary.

As much as it's an exploration of a particular occupation, it's also a study of these human beings themselves, how they carry themselves, how they work, and how they deal with their setbacks. Some of the salesmen have more backbone than others, and simply won't take no for an answer, while others take the hint quickly and slink out the door. For as much time spent documenting the salesmen out on the job, there's as much time spent showing them back in their hotel rooms, talking to each other, bragging about their successes or licking their wounds after a bad day. Sometimes, they complain about the ethnicity of the people they visit, or complain about the layout of the city, or this or that. It's these little moments that make the film seem whole, because you gets all the aspects of a person's personality, this way.