Death Of A Salesman Film Analysis

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Arthur Miller was a very successful writer and playwright, Death of a Salesman is Miller’s most significant work, a play that quickly became an American classic. The play has frequently been produced and each production interprets it differently (Kirszner 1292). This leads to the question of whether or not a play’s magnitude can be reached through film as well. Usually, when a book or film is adapted into a movie, certain elements change or are omitted all together. Director Volker Schlöndorff’s version of Death of a Salesman remains true to the play with very little deviation; the movie’s characters, tone, and setting closely correlate with the play. Death of a Salesman was released in September 1985, starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman and John Malkovich and Biff Loman. The actors cast in this movie seem to fit the roles the way Miller intended. However, an example of deviation from the play is where the reader of the play is told that Willy Loman is a big man. “I’m fat. I’m very foolish to look at, Linda” and is referred to as a…show more content…
Death of a Salesman mostly takes place in the Loman home and in Willy’s mind. There is little change to the script; minor things were left out such as when, in the play, Willy is talking to Linda about paying Frank for the carburetor, he says, “I’m not going to pay that man! That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car!” In the movie, he calls the Chevy “That lousy, rotten Chevrolet” (Kirszner 1307). For the most part, one could read the play along with watching the movie and find that it is almost verbatim which helps the reader/viewer see the authenticity of the movie. Even the music defined in the stage directions was taken into account in making the film. All the details of the setting helped make the movie on par with the play in the

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