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Death of a Salesman & Private Conversations [VHS] | ![Death of a Salesman & Private Conversations [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DRT380S8L._SL500_.jpg) | Directors: Christian Blackwood, Volker Schlöndorff
Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang, Charles Durning
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Category: Video
List Price: $29.98
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Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 8665
Format: Color, NTSC
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Discs: 2
Running Time: 218 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 630478578X
UPC: 013131030938
EAN: 9786304785782
ASIN: 630478578X
Theatrical Release Date: September 15, 1985
Release Date: September 4, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com essential video
German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff's 1985 production of Arthur Miller's most famous play appeared squarely and quite hauntingly in the middle of the go-go economy of the Reagan-Bush years. Miller's story, set during the post-war boom period of the late '40s, concerns an aging, traveling salesman named Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman), who despairs that his life his been lived in vain. Facing dispensability and insignificance in a heated, youthful economy, Willy is not ready to part with his cherished fantasies of an America that loves and admires him for personable triumphs in the marketplace. But the reality is far more pitiable than that, and the measure of Willy's self-delusion and contradictions is found in his two sons, one (Stephen Lang) a ne'er-do-well gliding on inherited hot air and repressed feelings, and the other (John Malkovich) a mousy, retiring sort unable to reconcile--or forgive--the difference between his father's desperate impersonation of success and the truth. Schlondorff's remarkable cast explores Miller's rich subtext to great effect, though Hoffman--despite giving us a new model of Willy to contrast with Lee J. Cobb's definitive portrayal a generation before--is a bit insect-like and shrill in his approach. Malkovich, Lang, and Kate Reid (as Willy's long-suffering wife) are perfect, however, and the production is atmospheric and strong. --Tom Keogh
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 Oh so depressing August 23, 2004
Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
Before I watched the film version of Arthur Miller's classic play recently, I thought I was the only person on the planet who had not read or watched a version of his work. I had a good idea of the general outline of the whole thing before I went in, of course, thanks to years of pop culture references to Willy Loman, but I just never got around to sitting down for a look. Every once in awhile, I get frazzled that I haven't seen or read things that I feel every educated person ought to experience, hence it was way past time to see this one. So many different versions of the play exist, mostly made for television adaptations, that I worried a bit about which one was the best. I finally decided to view this 1985 Dustin Hoffman version simply because it was the only one I could find. Easy, huh? Yep, it was, but the subject matter of the play, and Hoffman's soul stirring performance as Willy Loman, did not make this an easy program to watch. "Death of a Salesman" is a depressing, sad play that makes you ponder ideas we Americans take for granted. Miller's work effectively tosses a bucket of ice water over the idea that the American Dream means everyone who works hard will ultimately succeed beyond his or her wildest expectations.
Willy Loman is a salesman who cannot escape the lure of past triumphs. He continually flashes back to earlier, halcyon days when his two sons, Biff (John Malkovich) and Hap (Stephen Lang), were in the prime of their life. These were good days, days full of big paychecks, hard work, a happy family, and sons whose athletic prowess promised great things. Biff especially looked as though he would have a wonderful future. His abilities as a football star virtually insured that he would end up at a great school, with even more promises to come. But a certain horrific event concerning Willy and his life on the road destroyed forever Biff's bright future, and life took a decidedly bleak turn in the intervening years. We gradually come to learn that Willy's existence has been one big failure. His age is a factor working against him at his firm, where the son of the original owner seeks to force Loman out. Debts of all sorts begin to press down on the family. And Biff and Hap, both over the age of thirty, largely failed in life. Hap is a schemer and womanizer who moves from one small job to another. Biff doesn't work at all, and even left for points unknown for a few years before turning up on the Loman doorstep. The only loyal trooper in the bunch is Willy's weathered wife Linda (Kate Reid), a woman that never fails to praise her husband's meager accomplishments.
What happens to those of us who fail at life? You certainly won't see these poor souls on television or in the movies, two mediums that tend to emphasize the glamorous, the successful, the wealthy, and the talented. The only place you will see the teeming millions not making the cut are on shows about crime and prison. Society doesn't wish to acknowledge people who slaved away for years without making appreciable gains. Perhaps that is why "Death of a Salesman" is such a tough program to watch; we see by increments a grown man crumble away to a pitiful fate despite his best efforts to succeed. And Willy Loman's descent into despair and ruin is about as painful as you could imagine. Hoffman plays the character as a withered, blundering, bland sort of fellow prone to frenetic outbursts of disassociated ramblings, which I think works in many ways. By appearing as an anonymous looking chap you wouldn't notice if you walked by him on the street, Hoffman manages to convey the sense of the "every man" that Miller's play strove to immortalize. Loman resembles most of us because he doesn't look glamorous, doesn't look successful, doesn't look wealthy, and doesn't look talented.
I should mention two other very important aspects of this production. First, the makers of this version of "Death of a Salesman" chose to shoot the program on a half film half stage set. Rooms in the Loman household don't have roofs or walls in certain places, and the neighboring buildings are obviously one dimensional structures. I'll bet this annoyed some viewers, but not me. I took the noticeably fake set pieces as a symbol of the failures in Willy's life, and as a symbol of the charade of the American Dream. Too, "Death of a Salesman" is a play and the producers probably wanted the production to have that feel. Second, the performances here are magnificent. John Malkovich proves once again that he's a performer capable of totally immersing himself in a role. I started to worry when I saw this actor running around in a football uniform tossing a ball around since I didn't think he looked like a teenager. The later scenes where he confronts his father blew my earlier conceptions out of the water. Malkovich delivers his lines with an emotional intensity that's tough to watch.
I wasn't as impressed with "Private Conversations," a lengthy behind the scenes look at the production. This extra on the disc provides little of interest with its inclusion of assorted blooper footage, a couple of interviews, and other odds and ends. Just skip "Private Conversations" and watch "Death of a Salesman" instead. The emotional power of Miller's play is undeniable, and stands as a cautionary tale about dreams and those who fail to attain them.
Hopeful Movie Despite a Pessimistic Premise September 29, 2004
A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com (Glen Ellyn, IL USA)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich shine in this now classic play. Like Nora in Ibsen's "A Doll's House," we have characters confined by prescribed fate looking to climb out into their own.
What is fate?
In this case, Willy Loman is bound by his belief that personality alone, of being liked, is enough to make it to the American Dream. Unable to reconcile that those days never existed, and that hard work involved more than a firm handshake and a smile, he becomes despondent as he thinks of the lost potential. He is reminded in flashbacks and visions of relatives and friends who have succeeded.
His two sons are also confined to Willy's delusions of grandeur. Biff, played by Malkovich, had a future as a football star, but was handicapped by his dad's inhibitions and lack of reality. When he realizes his dad is a failure without integrity, after idolizing him, he concludes he too will be a failure.
Hap, on the other hand, Bif's brother, played by Stephen Lang, is a young Willy. He thinks his dad is right, and although he lives in futile mediocrity, believes dreaming is enough.
Kate Reid plays Willy's wife, Linda. She knows Willy is a failure, but tries to exist within the lie. She never declares the truth, but instead allows Willy to dream without substance.
Willy's hopes are shown worthless when he meets up with those, like Bernard, the nerdy math geek when Bif and Hap were children, and now practicing law in front of the Supreme Court. Willy asks what the secret is. His dream is nothing but the puff of a distortion of a Horatio Alger story, but he won't accept it. Bernard's father, Willy's neighbor, offers him a job, but Willy refuses.
The conflict is about encountering reality, and who will meet the truth. Can Biff live his simple dream of working outside with his hands, but by doing so must destroy the family structure. He knows it, and so he struggles.
Willy Loman's failure is like the hope of an old spiritual show follower, looking for salvation, but not willing to commit to what gets paired with it. It is a search for meaning. Despite a pessimistic premise, there is hope resident in this amazing film.
I fully recommend "Death of a Salesman."
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
No special effects needed; it's all in the words and acting March 3, 2001
Linda Linguvic (New York City)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This 1985 version was actually a TV movie using most of the original cast from the 1984 version of the Broadway play first written by Arthur Miller in 1949. Since then it has been performed many many times with a variety of different casts. A million years ago I even remember studying it in college. I have always wanted to see the play and was thrilled that I discovered this video.Dustin Hoffman stars as Willie Loman, a fading traveling salesman who has made all the wrong decisions in his life. A young John Malkovich plays his son, Biff, a jobless loser. Steven Lang, is cast as his other son, Happy; Linda Reid plays Willie Loman's wife; and Charles Durning plays his neighbor, Charlie. All have been nominated for a variety of awards and Dustin Hoffman won a Golden Globe for best actor that year. There is no doubt that this is a play, not a movie by the way it is staged. Flashbacks are achieved, for example, by the character Biff, coming on stage in a High School sweater. The characters often seem to be speaking directly to the audience also. I found all this refreshing after watching so many movies where computerized cinematography and special effects are everything. This play doesn't need special effects. It is all in the words and the acting. And what fine acting it is! I forgot how good a play can be! Especially one by Arthur Miller. The Director, Volker Shloendorff, made his American debut with this production, his prior experience being only in France and Germany. For drama at its finest, I definitely recommend this video.
Death of a Salesman: A Forgotten Classic November 11, 2001
Daniel J Bristol (Oneonta, NY United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Death of a Salesman," by Arthur Miller, is a play that examines the breakdown of the American Dream and family values through the literary lens of social realism. This particular production, produced at CBS studios in New York during the early 1980's, was considered by Miller himself to be the best interpretation of his play ever produced. Likewise, he considered Dustin Hoffmann as Willy Loman to be the best interpretation of the play's main character. It is hardly surprising. Death of a Salesman was the first play Hoffmann ever read, and it is easy to see the play's influence on every role Hoffmann has ever played. Volker Schlondorff did a fantastic job as director. His production is extremely faithful to Miller's notes, and although this production was made for television, the shift in medium loses nothing. I am using this two-tape set in my Literature class to show my freshman college students how to "get inside" a play and to realize that reading a script is not nearly as effective as seeing it acted out. This really is a magnificent production that presents the script with integrity and then gives you the chance to see the "guts" of the play.
This film is EXCEPTIONAL ! March 3, 2000
DT (Newport Beach, California)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I believe this movie to be a definitive version of Miller's work. The tone, mood, and imagery in this interpretation capture the essence of Willy Loman's life and death. I cannot say enough about the acting - Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich lead the cast with performances of the absolute highest order! They deliver a poignance and a gravity unmatched in recent cinema. Their drama is enhanced by the superb supporting cast; each supporting character adds both depth and clarity to the two protagonists. The unseen sides of Willy and Biff become visable to us through their interactions with the small core cast. I would be most interested in Arthur Miller's views on this adaptation.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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