Good start, but then it gets ruined

Fantastic!

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

I found this movie to be in desperate need of narration and editing.I don't think there's a single scene that lasts more than 2 minutes, so you have a bunch of short moments all over the place - salesman in car, salesman in someone's home, salesman in meeting, etc.But there's no real narrative to the story. It's just moments, and a string of moments doesn't make a movie.The makers should have picked one man and followed him, given us some background, etc. Instead there are many faces and it's hard to remember one from the other. There is no start, middle, or end to the story - just a bunch of short scenes and then we're done. So what was the point?They should have introduced these men, told us their challenges, interviewed them and let them speak to the camera, etc. Some men were fired, we're told in passing - why? Poor sales? How about taking one guy who's on the bubble and following his story?Just boring. The "moments of desperation" are kind of meaningless because we don't know the people.I really wanted to like this movie but it's a mess.

Like the salesman in this film, this movie is also a hard sale to the normal audience. It's also hard to find. Unless you happen to catch the film on TCM or a really old library. You might not know of this movie. It's really hard film to watch, its moves really slowed and nothing about it really states out in my opinion. There is no voice over, no music cues, or no title card to tell us what is happening, just a film shot and cut on 16mm about people doing their job. It's feels like a low budget Mad Men episode with bad filming in some scenes. One of the two cameras used can be seen in shot in the film. The hand-held microphone used to record the film's sound is visible in other shots. The film also get flipped horizontally, as evidenced by the parts in the men's clothes and hairs standing in a weird direction. It's weird in a way, and shows how limited they were in filming. Cloud of smoke from the chain-smoking and whiskey drinking that becomes a measure of the characters' empty lives. The Maysles Bros. did a wonderful job with this film as it follows four salesmen (nicknamed the Badger, the Gipper, the Rabbit, and the Bull, based on their particular on-the-job attributes) from Boston to Florida as they struggle to sell lavishly illustrated Bibles to reluctant, blue-collar customers as desperate to keep their money as the salesmen are to take it. The film mostly focuses on the anguished plight of Paul "the Badger" Brennan, an aging Boston-Irish veteran of the salesman circuit, weary of his job and unable to hide his exhaustion from customers and colleagues alike. He always talk in bizarre rants full of mumbles complains. Surprising there isn't a lot of action in the film. By action, I meant, we don't see really mean, or crazy people, the salesman has to dealt with. There is little amounts of scenes with people closing doors on them. Most of the customers, are respectable, and seem normal who gives the salesman the time to pitch what they are selling before saying no. So unlike today's society, where if you walk to somebody's front door, you're more like get a slam onto your face, before you finish a sentence. Anyways, we hear about most of how the sale went in the film's many dreary motel rooms scenes rather than seeing it in person. The film makes it clear, however, that the salesman are also under enormous pressure by their boorish boss. 'The next man that gets off base with me, I"m gonna tag him out'. He is quoted to be saying to them. He's the boss that every man probably doesn't want to have. In my opinion, spreading the good word of the lord should be free and I find it funny that these salesmen is using people's beliefs to make an extra buck. Reminds me a bit of fake shepherds tempting and scamming people to buy their way into heaven. I would also like to hear more about the struggle of being away from home and family for long periods of time, but what he heard are talks about boring lingos. At less, there was a small scene in the middle where the men decide to go swimming to give us something new. Like door to door salesmen over the years, got replace by amazon and Ebay so has Cinema Verite fallen out of vogue, replaced by filmmakers telling stories rather than showing them. This movie isn't for everybody, but if you happen to find it. Give it a watch.

I purchased this DVD as it's part of the Criterion Collection and I own several Criterion's. I have never found a film on the Criterion Collection to be 'boring', but this one takes the biscuit. I have tried twice to watch this film and both times I have nearly fallen asleep. This is hands down the most BORING film I have ever seen in my life. A bunch of old men sit around smoking and talking about a whole bunch of nothing for an hour and a half. Just who would find this interesting? I can only think this may be worthwhile to someone who has been a salesman themselves before. But this film does nothing to show us the advantages and disadvantages of their profession. It doesn't even show anything interesting about the persona of each salesman. There is literally nothing here except old men knocking on doors, sitting down for a smoke and a boring chat, and then knocking on doors again. I have seen A LOT of films and never have i ever experienced anything as slow and boring and uninteresting as this.

This is a great documentary by two of the greatest filmmakers in that genre. If you want the premise, the title says it all, yet there is so much substance to this documentary that at the same time, the title tells you very little.I could say that this movie is about greater topics such as work, or morality or character, but one of the best things about the Maysles style is that these decisions are left up to the viewer. So, yes, it's basically about door-to-door bible salesman, but the rest is for you to see.Commonly in modern documentaries (ie. Moore) the filmmaker quite literally filters the story and tells you what to think by narrating it, or even worse putting themselves in the movie. But the Maysles document the subject, without contaminating it. And this is a prime example of that style. Highly recommend it.