MovieChat Forums > Salesman (2021) Discussion > Single worst viewing experience for me.....

Single worst viewing experience for me...EVER


Wow. Oh my god. This film had such a strong impact on me it was astonishing. I've been bored before but this...this was wizardry. Upon completion of this film my legs buckled underneath me and my mood was then altered. In effect, I succumbed to fatigue and a mere staircase began to resemble purgatory.
I was confused, I was astounded, and I got angry.
This film was the most monotonous, reptative and unengaging peice of work that I've ever seen. Is this the effect the filmmakers were going for?
If so I'd have to say it was brilliant.

you can't fight in here, this is the war room!

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[deleted]

It's too bad you can't see the value of having a film like this available to you. It's a time capsule, and a peek into what life was actually like back in the 1960's for this group of people. This is as close to a time machine as we'll ever get. You aren't watching a movie and this isn't fiction. It's a fascinating look (IMO) into what a struggle this lifestyle must have been, with the pressures of making door-to-door bible sales just to pay the bills.

What did you honestly expect to see when you decided to watch this movie? I can only conclude that's it's your own fault for not taking from it what you should have.

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I thought it was a great film. America is full of people like this.

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Nicely stated.

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What exactly did you expect from a fly on the wall documentary about Bible salesmen shot in the 1960s?

I really enjoyed the film.

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Nothing really, it was a film class.

I hate most people

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Nothing really, it was a film class.
Kinda sums up the depth of your post

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omg, leave me alone ¬_¬

I hate most people

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I actually agree with you.

I'm in my mid-20s, and I enjoy all types of cinema, but getting through this film was laborious. The standards of cinema have changed, so it took my mind awhile to adjust to the slow pacing and drudgery. Even then, there was a generational dissonance I experienced in trying to catch onto the vernacular, style, and pop culture references from the time of which I'm absolutely ignorant. I could relate to the emotion, but the flow was just too nebulous for me to really sink my soul into.

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The standards of cinema have changed

just not for the better.


watch this space

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You should probably stick with the pixar movies.

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Shyut up. I think they're overrated.

I hate most people

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hope you flunked.

Well, isn't it comforting to know that being miserable is still better than being an idiot?

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Yeah, that's right. I stole your face palm. Do sumthin!

I hate most people

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Im flattered, why should i do sumthing?

Well, isn't it comforting to know that being miserable is still better than being an idiot?

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The drawing is great! Did you learn it in film class?

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No I stole it :(

I hate most people

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[deleted]

My guess is that you're an adolescent or just coming out of adolescence. Am I right? If so, try it again in ten years. It works better when you are 25 or above and more inclined to abstract reflection on politics and society.

As I wrote elsewhere

IMO, no documentary ever "just" shows a slice of life, because no documentary is simply a videocam running unedited on a scene. Scenes are selected and then further manipulated in the editing room. In a great documentary such as this one, viewers get a coherent, meaningful and more intense appreciation of their world. Sometimes it's so powerful that it alters the way they view that world.

Salesman is not just about any salesmen but about American salesmen pursuing the heavily touted American dream and finding its attainment just as elusive as the dream they sell their customers. It's about Christian American hypocrisy, in which the "blessed" meek are not so much the favored of God as the favored of salesmen because they're so easy to prey upon. It's about what cut-throat competition in the marketplace can do to the human soul, making liars out of otherwise decent people. It's about the culture of spin, in which the leaders of corporate America, modern-day PT Barnums, attempt to dress up predatory schemes in sanctimonious garb. Finally, it's about the fundamental gullibility of the American public, when it comes to Bibles (or wars, or anything else) they don't need and didn't ask for.

More than just a slice of life, it's the resonant quality of these themes that makes Salesman a cult classic.

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Oh I get it. On my 25th birthday, all of the sudden, I will 'get' this movie o_o
And I probaby did get it, it was just a very tedious to watch, and not an enjoyable time. Not everyone finds them enjoyable. That's what people into the arts don't seem to realize, and that's all my post was saying. Yep, yeah, I think it was. I DO see how you read that into the film but I was still too bored to care. And I garantee you both my parents who are over 55 would shut it off in 10 minutes. Anyway I wrote that post years ago yet I'm not intent on watching this film again.

I hate most people

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And I probaby did get it

Hmm. "Probably" eh? Well, never mind. You have me convinced that you won't like this film any better at 60 than at 20.
DO see how you read that into the film but I was still too bored to care.

Given that this film was geared more toward enlightenment than entertainment, I'm curious whether you can think offhand of any film that did enlighten you, as oppose to merely keeping you entertained. Put another way, what film or films made you think and made you grateful for the exercise?

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YES, probably. It just wasn't particularly enjoyable, and therefor I can't provide you an analysis. I just know that the film was making a statement by dragging us a long with the life of the salesman in black and white, showing really no glimmer of hope from the monotony with an unseen motivation, from what I can remember. I see art in a lot of things that would bore others, like editing. But they'd probably still 'get it', in essence.

" I'm curious whether you can think offhand of any film that did enlighten you, as oppose to merely keeping you entertained. Put another way, what film or films made you think and made you grateful for the exercise?"

I don't see films that way. Films only 'enlighten' me in a sense that they are an interesting experience. A films has never made open my eyes to a life dilemma, it has never 'taught' me anything. But they have made me reflect. Such as Grizzly Man, the human perspective in nature and society. The New World was a meditative and entrancing view of emotion plus the makings of an 'outcast'. Salesmen was not an entertainment film and I wasn't really having fun watching it and my neck hurt so I came here to rant about it.

I hate most people

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I meant "enlighten" as in see things in a fresh perspective, not "teach" you something. It sounds as if both The New World and Grizzly Man did that for you, and I'm glad. There is much that is revelatory about the visual poetry of a Terrence Malick film and The New World is no exception. In a different way, Werner Herzog has an uncanny knack for enlightening audiences with his films. So, too, I believe, did the Maysles brothers have this power, which is why I'm here.

Anyway, sorry about your neck. I hope it made a full recovery.

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Nice impatient response, proving why you should not have watched this movie in the first place.

From start to finish I was absolutely TRANSFIXED and HORRIFIED at the situation of these salesmen. I didn't look to be "entertained", it's not a horror movie or a comedy. At no point is it attempting to "entertain" you. If you think that is it's goal, then you're mistaken from the start.

Again, I know you just lack the empathy and maturity to simply observe these mens' lives and think about the hell that they lived in.

Best of luck in your shallow life.

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Maysles_fan^

"IMO, no documentary ever "just" shows a slice of life, because no documentary is simply a videocam running unedited on a scene. Scenes are selected and then further manipulated in the editing room. In a great documentary such as this one, viewers get a coherent, meaningful and more intense appreciation of their world. Sometimes it's so powerful that it alters the way they view that world."

This is true.


"Salesman is not just about any salesmen but about American salesmen pursuing the heavily touted American dream and finding its attainment just as elusive as the dream they sell their customers."

So far as a 'dream' they sell their customers, in reality they are selling Bibles. Books. My mother bought a wonderful Catholic Bible around the same time period portrayed in the film (and, not in the much touted 'Bible belt' region of the country, but in the SF bay area of California), and we children absolutely loved that book -- it was beautiful with remarkable illustrations. Golden gilding, nicely engraved durable thick covers and binding which have held up remarkably well over all these years, and even the interior pages are of a quality that you don't find in many more current books. Included a fantastic, interesting concordance. And, I am not even a believer! But, after my mother passed away, all we grown kids wanted that Bible. I don't think these salesmen are selling religion, per se -- they are selling Bible books, and some of the Bibles that were sold door-to-door back in the day were rather quite nice.

Nowadays, I get 'door-to-door' salespeople who represent themselves as young college students from other countries, saying that they are trying to finance their stay in the US by selling educational books for children. These books are not cheap, and I actually bought two of them from a young man who said he was from England. I have quite an extensive library and these two books were wonderful additions. I wouldn't have bought them if I didn't think I couldn't use them (and did with my children), and I am going to pass them on to my future grandchildren if I ever have that pleasure.

I must say that I was impressed by what some may call a 'pitch', and, if this 'student' was telling the truth (I was given a website to check out the program he said to be representing before buying the books if I had any doubts, but even that could have been a 'scam'), I am one who likes to help students, especially those from other countries who are working for the pleasure of being in the USA, but that is not what ultimately sold me on the books. It was the quality of the books. The young people were very polite and were not hard sell by any means. Their company did, however, have my name and address after that, and once a year I get a new 'student' from another country stopping by to see if I want to buy any additional volumes, which I don't have any need of now, so I don't.

So, bottom line, for a good many folks, American or otherwise, the product won't be bought if it isn't worth the price to them, despite whatever 'pitch' is thrown at them. For people who DO pay for items that aren't worth it, that's their choice. I would rather have a country in which adults are treated as adults and are free to spend their money as frivolously as they want than a country where there is no such choice. And, people who are easily 'preyed upon' in overt 'business transactions' are the types who likely will be 'preyed upon' in all kinds of other 'transactions', such as giving their time or energy or money to a cause that is a scam or to a false lover or to the lottery or whatever. So be it....


"It's about Christian American hypocrisy, in which the "blessed" meek are not so much the favored of God as the favored of salesmen because they're so easy to prey upon."

Where is the Christian American hypocrisy here? I think you are reading too much into this. Yes, I believe this film has many levels to it, but a person buying one of these Bibles does not necessarily consider themselves 'blessed' or is 'meek' or has been 'preyed upon.' The salesmen, with all their chit-chat and brio and individualized sales methodologies, etc., never hide the fact that they are selling Bibles.


"It's about what cut-throat competition in the marketplace can do to the human soul, making liars out of otherwise decent people."

Although not everything these salesmen said in the film was necessarily the 'truth', that's on them. ALL people tell little white lies, and many times when there is no financial reason to do so. And, whose to know how 'decent' some/all of these men were PRIOR to being in sales? They each have their own 'pitch' and many human interactions are 'sales' of a sort. For example, you are 'pitching' your point of view, right here on IMDB, as am I.



"It's about the culture of spin, in which the leaders of corporate America, modern-day PT Barnums, attempt to dress up predatory schemes in sanctimonious garb."

Same as above. And, 'spin' did not originate with corporate America or even with modern-day living. As soon as a person does NOT tell the other person that the dress she is wearing really does make her look fat OR does not claim every last cent on their tax statement OR told Mom that they didn't take the cookie that they did OR says ANYTHING that is not totally honest, even if for altruistic purposes, that person is engaging in 'spin'.


"Finally, it's about the fundamental gullibility of the American public, when it comes to Bibles (or wars, or anything else) they don't need and didn't ask for."

Firstly, most, if not all, of these potential customers did fill out cards at their churches -- these were not 'cold calls.' So, in fact, they were asking for 'something'. And, I don't think that their filling out the cards or opening their doors to salesmen or buying these Bibles is necessarily from some sort of 'fundamental gullibility'. As I stated, our family owns a Catholic Bible such as what these men were selling and it really is quite a nice piece of work, much of it quite artfully done.


"More than just a slice of life, it's the resonant quality of these themes that makes Salesman a cult classic."

I agree that Salesman is a cult classic, although the themes that you are pitching I don't necessarily agree with.

But, that's just MHO!



"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

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It's sad how twentysomthings on these boards think that their degree of impatience and boredom with a production is somehow film criticism.

As I tell them all. Go to bed, get up, eat your froot loops, take off your jammies and go to school.

When you grow up a bit, you may or may not have the maturity to understand this movie and sympathize with its characters. That ability may have been totally sterilized from your generation, but we can always hope.

Have your mommy read you a bedtime story tonight, and one day you may have the life experience and background to intelligently comment on grown ups' movies.

Until then, shhhhhhhh. Just be quiet and let the grown ups talk.

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Moron. You get over YOURSELF. I wrote that 4 years and I no longer care to discuss this with some hyper flame thrower. Just because I didn't enjoy a film I get 2 insulting posts by some pseudo-intellectual? Gtfo.

BUGS

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A little harsh, maybe, but I sympathize with your frustration.

GSmith IS a twentysomething, part of the MTV generation that has been overstimulated to the point of narcissism: "Entertain me with jump cuts, explosions and sex and do it quickly or I'll pick up my remote and go channelsurfing for something more titillating." Like "Miami Animal Police" or the usual schlock on Nickelodeon.

S/he made a special effort to learn the longish word "pseudointellectual" in order to dismiss out of hand anything he/she doesn't want to make the effort to understand.

However I wouldn't give up on all 20-somethings, especially the inveterate readers.

Reading develops empathy and patience, qualities you MUST have to appreciate this astonishing documentary.

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lol, why is everyone so mean to the poster, maybe he just thought it was boring, that doesn't mean that he dislikes all old documentaries. It just his opinion it doesn't mean that everyone has to agree with him.
I didn't think it was a great movie but as he said it's kinda boring to watch. And, please don't tell me I'm close-minded 16 year old who only likes to watch explosions and sex in movies.
There are plenty of old documentaries like Let there be light, The house is black, Titicut follies etc. that are great but not this one, IN MY OPINION<---

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rockmail^

<It's sad how twentysomthings on these boards think that their degree of impatience and boredom with a production is somehow film criticism.>


So true. Not with all, but with some ;)

Not only do they post responses, but some open up entire threads to basically shout "This film SUX!!!" and then get all kinds of heartburn because other posters lend opposing opinions. What else to expect when you create an entire thread on a discussion board regarding a known classic, and then proceed to use well-worn 'trite-icisms' to slam a movie, such as it was 'boring' or too 'slow' or not 'entertaining' enough', which is really nothing more than saying "This film SUX!!!"? SINGLE WORST...EVER!!!!

I would hazard a guess that this movie was shown in a film class for *some* reason??

Just because a movie is known as a 'cult classic', this certainly does not mean that it will be to everyone's liking; however, a viewer *might* stop to think that *maybe* there is something to the movie that s/he just might not be 'getting' (for whatever reason), and might muster the maturity to think twice before opening up an entire thread to slam it (unless trolling is the objective). Why megaphone to everyone reading that you don't know what you don't know?

Either way, it makes it relatively easy to spot the age range of the poster, (although, my sons are young adults and they have a vast and eloquent appreciation for all kinds of cinema -- then again, they were raised by a 'movie buff').


Song lyrics pop into mind:

"Oh, very young, what will YOU leave us this time? You're only dancing on this earth for a short while...

Oh, very young, what will YOU leave us this time? There'll never be a better chance to change your mind..." -- Cat Stevens


:)


"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

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Huh, I'm in my forties and I too thought it was dull--although it did seem like a worthwhile effort, so I'm not complaining that the film exists, more defending the OP.

And I do like many documentaries, just in case you are wondering. My favorites in the genre include Roger and Me, Bill Cunningham New York, The Thin Blue Line, Crumb, Etre et Avoir ("To Be and To Have"), Dark Days, Project Nim, Capturing the Friedmans, The King of Kong, and For All Mankind. Oh, and the UP series.

--------
Daily single-tweet movie reviews: https://twitter.com/SlackerInc

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I'm sure you loved "Star Wars" 1-25. As well as the "Rocky"series. Lethal Weapon , and any other Mel Gibson Romp. you cretinous swine.

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I have not SEEN any of those movies :l Wow, what a pathetic asshat you are

BUGS

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you were in film school and you never saw rocky or lethal weapon?

W T F



"Cos... f__k's sake, who'd wanna keep trying to shoot a nice guy like me?" ---XXXX

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I wasn't in film school, just a class. Still ain't seen those movies though :o

BUGS

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give em a try!

:)


"Cos... f__k's sake, who'd wanna keep trying to shoot a nice guy like me?" ---XXXX

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I also still haven't even seen movies like 'Heat' and 'LA Confidential'. Those older action-y type movies, there's a lot of movies to see.

BUGS

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wow, those are two awesome films. yeah i recommend those too

i am a big fan of brit gangster films, and michael mann is very popular in england. many, many people think that HEAT is the best film ever made.

best wishes and happy viewing!!!

hit me back when you see a few of those, let me know what ya think

:)



"Cos... f__k's sake, who'd wanna keep trying to shoot a nice guy like me?" ---XXXX

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Sure thing

BUGS

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