Salesman 1969

Don Druker, Chicago Reader: This 1968 study of door-to-door Bible salesmen in the Boston area and in the south is a superb and truthful look at an American institution -- and at the troubling relationship between fact and fiction, materialism and spiritual values. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The filmmakers, despite their rueful gaze, inspire empathy for all parties to this miserable commerce. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: It's such a fine, pure picture of a small section of American life that I can't imagine its ever seeming irrelevant, either as a social document or as one of the best examples of what's called cinema verite or direct cinema. Read more