Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Charles Durning, Stephen Lang, John Malkovich

Director: Volker Schlondorff

Summary: The stage production of Arthur Miller's masterpiece about Willie Loman, the emotionally broken-down salesman. This drama remains one of the most poignant and powerful stories in modern theatre.

Volker Schlondorff's tragic film is an outstanding stage production of Arthur Miller's 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Dustin Hoffman recreates his Broadway role of Willy Loman, a tired, emotionally bankrupt salesman. The award-winning cast also features John Malkovich as Willy's son, Biff.

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Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on April 12, 2006 1:41 PM

Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich star in this Award - Winning
adaption of the timeless Pulitzer Prize - winning play by Arthur Miller .
Willy Loman ( Hoffman ) has spent his entire working life as a struggling travelling salesman , living under the illusion that he and
his family are destined for success . In order to cope with his failures
Willy lives in the past and begins to lose touch with reality . His life takes a tragic turn when he is fired and is forced to live on handouts
from his old friend Charlie ( Charles Durning ) . He then contemplates suicide rather than face reality .

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German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff's 1985 production of Arthur Miller's most famous play Death of a Salesmanappeared 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 1940s, concerns an ageing travelling 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. Schlöndorff'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, Amazon.com

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Making Of, Interactive Menus, Scene Selection, Production Stills Gallery
Year:	1985
Release Date:	September 3, 2001
Runtime:	133 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D V 1063
Keywords:	Death, General, Salesman, Drama
Genre:	Drama