New York. The 63-year old traveling salesman Willy Loman is not able to keep up with his work anymore, and hasn't achieved much in life. His two grown up sons visit him at his home: Happy and the 34-year old Biff who was Willy's hope to continue with the business, but never went to college, and is thus still unemployed. Willy and Biff always argue. Willy has hallucinations about his late brother. When Willy asks his boss Howard to work in the city because he cannot travel long trips anymore, but is fired. Willy's neighbor Charley borrows him money to complete the payment of his mortgage and claim ownership of the house. After a heated argument, where mom Linda scorns him, Biff says he is not meant to be a salesman and that he is not outstanding or special, but that he still loves his father. Willy commits suicide in the car, leaving the insurance money to his family.
Volker Schlondorff's film adaptation of Arthur Miller's eponymous play, "Death of a Salesman" enjoys a very high reputation—among others, it has a perfect 100% fresh score among film critics on Rotten Tomatoes—but it is in reality still a little bit overrated and overhyped. Its themes about the deconstruction of the American Dream are still sharp and bitter, disputing the myth that one person can work diligently all their life and achieve financial success, and even contemplating about the disturbing notion that some people are simply not outstanding nor special, but just ordinary, just as the character Biff admits to his father Willy in the finale, but that even they are just normal human beings worthy of love and compassion. Miller displays the theme of capitalist discrimination and the ever-glooming threat of going extinct through poverty if a person is not successful, but Willy is a symbol for a double tragedy: he worked obediently all his life, and is still a failure, whereas this even takes a toll on his relationship with his sons, who are under pressure to compensate for his failure. The actors are excellent, especially Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich as Willy and Biff. The flashback where it is shown how Biff discovered his father cheated on his mother with another woman in a hotel room reveals a lot about his disappointment and their rift. However, the movie feels rushed and not that well written, even though better dialogue is expected when such talk-heavy stories are presented, whereas some melodramatic situations are so exaggerated and over-the-top in trying to force one tragedy after another in this family that it becomes even banal and unintentionally comical at times.
Grade:++
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