The door-to-door salesman, a nearly forgotten profession locked and buried in the time capsule of the U.S. suburban explosion, has lived on through the mythic standing of Arthur Miller's Willie Loman - the embodiment of the individual's frustration with corporate indifference in mid-20th Century America.  The Maysles Brothers poignant and intensely focused documentary, Salesman, captures the depressing reality of the profession and the hopes and dreams of those men who left their families for days at a time to put food on the table.  It functions as both a tribute of their work ethic and a condemnation of the system that considers such a profession a healthy route to the American dream.  Adding to the complexity of the film, the four men featured are selling high-end, illustrated bibles to lower-income families who can barely raise enough money to pay their rent.  Just as the company breaks down their salesmen with threats of being fired or demoted, so do the salesmen break down potential customers by preying on their strong religious beliefs, social awkwardness, and inability to refuse a kind, hardworking man's advice.  The cycle of human degradation for the sole purpose of profits is depicted with disturbingly clarity early in the film and the long-term effects of working such a job are evident in the men's sulking, nearly lifeless expressions.  The main protagonist and real-life surrogate for Loman, Paul Brennan, appears to often be hanging by his last thread and by the end of the film, is left unable to close a sale and a shell of his former self.

The filmmaker's presence is never intrusive, allowing the social commentary to flourish naturally from the compiled material.  The commodification of religion, which is inherent in their job, marks a shift in American consumerism where unnecessary goods helped fill the void created by the sense of helplessness and confusion that existed in the post-war years.  Salesman captures this transition, where complete physical and spiritual well-being could only be attained through consumption, as well as any film I've seen and without a patronizing or knowing tone.  It is carefully structured to give the audience an understanding of the salesman's internal struggles as well as the various, and often shady, sales methods used to peddle their product.  The film's greatest achievement, however, is in deftly portraying the cycle of greed and selfishness that this profession has created.  Based on the principle of "people will buy anything if you sell it the right way", the salesmen are pitching a product they don't care about to people who can't afford to buy it.  What is felt throughout the film is the sense of shame and discomfort felt by both parties who are left playing a game of cat-and-mouse that neither want to play.  The anguish on Brennan's face is different than you'd find on the face of a man who failed to achieve something great - it is a look of despair from a man who can no longer perform the only demeaning task he knows how.  In the end, his loss is great not because he is older and helpless but because it is a true American tragedy - an unavoidable tragedy on our road to becoming the world's bastion of unbridled capitalism.