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Movie
Poster for Salesman

Salesman

1969 · 90 min

A quietly absorbing, fly-on-the-wall look at door-to-door salesmen, full of mundane struggle and low-key desperation.

Directed by
Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles
Genres
Documentary
Starring
Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker
Tagline
The best seller and the world.
Overview
This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.

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Rent or buy in the UK
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video
More options Data from JustWatch
Directed by
Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles
Genres
Documentary
Starring
Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • cynicalstrength 2 of 3
  • satiricalstrength 1 of 3
  • earneststrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • work
  • class
  • isolation
  • faith
  • ambition
Places
  • small town
  • big city
  • road trip
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • documentary
  • true story
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence none
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror0
Humour3
Realism10
Romance0
Tension4
Darkness5
Complexity4
Emotional weight6

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Where to watch in the UK

Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
documentary
Directed by
Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Starring
Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker, Raymond Martos, Melbourne I. Feltman, Margaret McCarron, Kennie Turner
Cinematography
Albert Maysles
Runtime
90 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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