- Directors: Albert Maysles; David Maysles; Charlotte Mitchell Zwerin
- AMG Rating:
- Genre: Culture & Society
- Movie Type: Biography
- Themes: Work Ethics
- Main Cast: Paul Brennan
- Release Year: 1969
- Country: US
- Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
One of the most well respected of the cinema verite documentaries of the 1960's, this non-fiction film follows a group of real-life Bible salesmen for the Mid-American Bible Company as they ply their wares. The central figure in the film is Irish-American Paul Brennan, a 56-year-old of great wit who traipses door to door in an effort to sell the good book to Catholic housewives who really can't afford to buy but don't want to appear rude to a Church-sanctioned representative. The documentary, a collaboration by the Maysles brothers, also follows Brennan as he shares war stories with fellow Bible peddlers and attends management and sales meetings. The Maysles' next film was their classic documentary of the Rolling Stones fateful 1969 tour, Gimme Shelter (1970). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie GuideReview
Though the Maysles brothers had made several documentaries about celebrities (Showman!, on film producer Joseph E. Levine; and What's Happening: The Beatles in the USA), it was a group of Bible salesman who provided them with their breakthrough to a larger audience. Critical acclaim and showings at theaters specializing in foreign and independent product made Salesman the must-see documentary of 1969 and brought much attention to the cinéma vérité movement. In the late '60s, Paul Brennan and his colleagues come off like throwbacks to another era: men dressed in conservative suits working on their sales prospects one at a time, face-to-face. True to the precepts of cinéma vérité, the Maysles (and their co-director Charlotte Zwerin) don't try to pass judgment on their subjects, though it's difficult to determine whether the filmmakers hit Brennan at a bad time (he has trouble making any sales on camera) or they are recording a metaphorical death of a salesman. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie GuideCast
Paul Brennan
