The Death of the Salesman (1968)

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Movie
Original title The death of the traveling salesman
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1968
length 125 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Gerhard Klingenberg
script Gerhard Klingenberg
production Georg Richter
music Peter Fischer
camera Mirko Hesky
occupation

The Death of Salesman is a German TV film from 1968 based on the play Death of a Salesman (original title Death of a Salesman ) by Arthur Miller . Directed by Gerhard Klingenberg . The traveling salesman Willy Loman is played by Heinz Rühmann , Käthe Gold is cast as Loman's wife Linda and Christoph Bantzer and Peter Thom as Loman's sons Biff and Happy.

The film, which was commissioned by ZDF , was broadcast for the first time on May 5, 1968 in the station's program.

action

The now 63-year-old traveling salesman, Willy Loman, returns home late at night from one of his tours and tells his worried wife, Linda, that he is dead tired and almost asleep on the way. The couple has a visit from their now adult sons, 34-year-old Biff and his younger brother Harold, called Happy. Loman mainly complains to his wife about Biff, who in his opinion is doing too little to be professionally successful.

Biff and Happy, awakened by their parents' voices, are also talking, with Happy confiding to his brother that the father has been losing a lot lately. Biff thinks it's a bad thing to trample yourself fifty weeks a year and then have two weeks of vacation. However, he admits that he is not happy about still not having a job. Biff could never forgive his father for having fun with another woman on business trips, which led to him dropping out of school, without a degree and unable to study. Since then he has made his way through life with various jobs.

Looking back, Lomann remembers what it used to be like when he came back from business trips and the reaction of his sons, who looked up at him in admiration. He has been traveling as a salesman for thirty-six years now, without being really successful and without enjoying the recognition that is so important to him. Also, he can no longer keep up with his younger colleagues. Just today he almost ran over a child because he was exhausted at the wheel.

While Loman is playing cards with his friend Charley, his now deceased brother Ben, whose success he has always admired, suddenly appears in his imagination. He begs his brother to tell him what he needs to teach his sons to be as successful as Ben. Ben just replies succinctly: "When I was 17 years old I went into the jungle, when I was 21 I came out again and God knows I was rich."

Biff has a conversation with his mother, who is saddened that he and his father repeatedly quarrel on his rare visits. She also tries to make her sons understand their father's situation, and says that special care must be taken with people like her father, and tells them tearfully that their father tried to kill himself.

When Loman called on his boss Howard Wagner at his company and asked for a transfer to the office in New York, the conversation ended bitterly for the old man, and Wagner fired him. Again Willy flees into his dream world, in which his brother appears and suggests that he should accompany him to Alaska with his sons. A conversation shortly afterwards with Bernard, the son of his friend Charley, makes Loman clear why Biff did not graduate from school at the time, a fact that he tries to suppress. When Charley offers him a position in his company, as he has done several times before, he declines it out of false pride, but takes the money that his friend gives him.

Loman has been invited to dinner by his sons in a pub, where the conflict between Biff and his father continues to intensify. Biff cannot understand that his father does not want to and cannot accept reality. The get-together goes completely wrong. At home, the two young men have to put up with their mother's bitter accusations. Loman plans to kill himself so that his family can enjoy his $ 20,000 life insurance policy. He talks about this with his imaginary brother Ben. Biff, in turn, has decided to disappear from the parents' lives so that there are no more arguments between them over him. Before that, however, there is a harrowing outburst towards his father, with Loman realizing how much Biff loves him. However, that doesn't stop him from making big plans for his son that Biff can realize once he's got the $ 20,000 from insurance. Determined to get it right this time, Loman storms out of the house. His family, who heard the door slam, are horrified to hear the engine noise of the driving away car.

Willy Loman's family and old friend Charley have gathered in the cemetery. No one else came. Biff and Happy believe that the father had no right to end his life, they helped him, and Linda keeps wondering why . For the first time, all the bills had been paid, and they had no more debts and no longer needed much.

background

Gregor Ball wrote in his film biography that Heinz Rühmann was only reluctant to make the decision to accept one of the offers made to him by television, which is now on the rise. It was the film producer Georg Richter who suggested Rühmann to play the role of Willy Loman at the side of Käthe Gold under the direction of the young Gerhard Klingenberg. Rühmann's initial skepticism towards the new medium soon evaporated, as the work in the television studio reminded him very much of the precision of Stanley Kramer . Rühmann gradually recognized the enormous possibilities the new medium had to offer him. He was finally able to test his acting skills and his possibilities in tragic roles. So was The Death of Salesman to Rühmanns first television appearance.

Embassy

The drama exemplarily describes a salesperson who is successful at a young age and unsuccessful in old age ( curse of sales ) who tries to conceal the lack of success up to and including the loss of his job by the new young boss with a single lie according to the motto more appearance than reality. Willy is even too proud to take the job offered by his successful old friend Charley, who is also the head of a company.

Stefan Lüddemann found in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung : “Miller's play is primarily about people who do not find truth. Nobody can admit their defeat, nobody has the confidence to know that they are in good hands with others even if they fail. Willy Loman's existence is precarious. "

The author and critic Dieter Wunderlich wrote that Willy Loman was breaking "on an inhuman economic system in which only material success is important". It went on: “In 'The Death of the Salesman' Arthur Miller exposes the 'American Dream' as a mirage, because the protagonist's tragedy stands for a failed social order.” The play is “an appeal, not only to professional and financial success to stare, but to reflect on values ​​such as love, family, solidarity and humanity - even if this is not in line with society ”.

reception

criticism

A well-known critic wrote after Rühmann's television debut in the play: “Did an actor ever speak such a bloodcurdling shrill with such a low voice? Is there a second actor who can use the gentlest means to portray the dignity of wretchedness and the loneliness of man? ”The opinions were unanimous:“ There is none. ”

In the Berliner Morgenpost, almost 50 years later, Felix Müller belittled Rühmann's performance with the words: "The somewhat cute Heinz Rühmann in a film adaptation by Gerhard Klingenberg from 1968."

Success of the original and further film adaptations

Arthur Miller was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his drama The Death of the Salesman , premiered in New York on February 10, 1949 .

The play was first filmed in 1951 by the Hungarian-American film director László Benedek with Fredric March in the title role. 1966 followed two film adaptations, one with Lee J. Cobb and one with Rod Steiger in the role of the traveling salesman. In 1985 a film was made by Volker Schlöndorff with Dustin Hoffman in the lead role.

For more films, see → article Death of a Salesman

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gregor Ball: Heinz Rühmann. His films - his life. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag and Ferenczy Verlag AG, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-453-86024-1 , pp. 142, 143.
  2. ↑ Stefan Lüddemann: Miller's "Death of a Salesman" Prekäre Existenzen In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung . December 13, 2010.
  3. ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: Arthur Miller: The death of the traveling salesman sS dieterwunderlich.de
  4. ^ Felix Müller: The dusty sales representative In: Berliner Morgenpost . March 19, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  5. ↑ Death of a traveling salesman with a detailed summary of the play sS inhaltsdaten.de