Death of a Salesman (Schlondorff, 1985) DVD, 1985

Taking a hiatus from Hollywood, Dustin Hoffman chose to spend most of 1984 playing Willy Loman in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s definitive study of the soured American Dream. The spectre of Lee J. Cobb loomed large; could the short, Method-acting film star compete? We needn’t have worried: Hoffman managed to redefine Loman, bringing a new perspective to his pathetic vulnerability, something that seemed a world away from Cobb, with his huge frame and thunderous, baritone voice. Cobb, of course, had excelled as the proud patriot, the gently powerful patriarch, being slowly broken down by his unachieved dreams, but Hoffman evokes a different kind of sympathy. His once-ambitious sales terrier is a loser from the start: a (literally) small man trying to be noticed, dreaming only of modest material and familial success (as if Ratso Rizzo had gone legitimate), which he still fails to achieve. Favouring a straight, stage-to-screen transfer of the production, Volker Schlondorff’s TV film provides a subtle magnification of Hoffman’s intense stage performance, and stands as a valuable record of a great American actor tackling a great American role.

Julian Upton on 6th May 2008
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