I watched this movie last year in my English class. I don’t remember it, but I do remember my buddy, Mike, saying that Dustin Hoffman made him nervous and that he hated him as an actor. To me, that statement brought to light and elucidated what I had always hated about Dustin Hoffman. But at the same time that’s why Hoffman is so good in this role. Lowman’s character needs to almost despicable. All that aside, the video was informative and, like the Mother Courage production video, cool in that it shows how a play or film is actually produced. The director looked and sounded foreign, or German at least, and I find that interesting. That this specifically American film was directed by a foreigner is interesting to me. The film does not look like a large production, so I think that, if the film had been made into something larger, an good American director would have been employed. John Malcovich, I think, was apposite; he’s a good selection because he looks like a football player/jock-kind of guy. Linda’s character looked good. I do, like was said in class, think that having the playwright, director, and original male cast in the play is something really cool and special. It probably helped out the creative process immensely. Whoever played Happy looked great in the restaurant scene, but looked pretty affected in the scene where the family parades with Biff to the car. In summation though, I think Dustin Hoffman is terrible. That’s the largest thing I took from this video.
Hey this is Harry Segal, I have no idea how to work this blog thing, sorry for commenting on your post Evan.
ReplyDeleteThe synergy of director, playwright and actor in Death of a Salesman produced impressive results for such a rare phenomenon. While sometimes the situation results in friction between artists (too many cooks in the kitchen type dynamic), and sometimes it results in the stagnation of a particular play (let us not forget edward albee's twisted sense of dramatic activism), the playful rapport off-camera between Hoffman, Miller and the director was an effective system with an absolutely delightful product. When great actors have the freedom and opportunity to explain their decisions to a director and constantly critique/improve each others contributions, great work is the result. This is lost somewhat in live theatre due in large part to the overwhelming dominance of the director and lack of star power for the actors, whose every action and business is either instantly approved or tweaked by the director.
Anyway, I think Dustin Hoffman was a good choice for Willy Loman. He was a little bit more energetic and charismatic than the conventional Willy, but he's got that "game over" look on lock...and that scene where John Malkovich put the rope on the table? I feel like that couldn't have been done any better, that scene was too legit.