A Review on the 1985 Movie Adaptation of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller with Reference to the Theory of “naturalism” as Propagated by Konstantin Stanislavski.

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around all his life. His hands never stop moving. He always seems to be either putting on or taking off his jacket. He is constantly cleaning his glasses. He drags the past back into the present, desperately trying to figure out what went wrong with him and his sons. Hysteria begins to engulf him as he realizes that it isn’t enough in this world to be well liked.” (O’Connor) The romanticized, far reaching hopes and dreams of Willy, the yearning for equal and more attention and love of Happy, the need to keep the family safe, strong and together of Linda and the urge to break away from the tedious system of Biff are thereby far from fantasized portrayals. Death of a Salesman captures some of the individual prayers and desires of the post-world war bourgeois American family caught in the humdrum of the economic rat-race. This non-cinematic adaptation, with minimal pretense and fancy which could dilute the potency of performance therefore is indeed a reproduction of life; thus Death of a Salesman can undoubtedly be traced as a manifestation of the realistic post world war period.

Stanislavsky in his approach also focused on rhythm and tempo as vital elements in enacting movements as well as emotions and feelings truthfully. While the tempo balanced the speed of an action or feeling, the rhythm maintained the intensity as well as the depth of the experience. On the other hand, the movie production also entwines the viewer step by step into reaching an understanding of Willy’s point of view and mindset. Willy’s lifelong realities and fantasies which he continuously slips back to are displayed to the viewer by using simple rhythm’s whereas the greatest revelation of the movie which is the decision Willy makes on behalf of his family, is controlled by the tempo.

The portrayal of ordinary people in a carefully selected and distilled representation of real life that is still theatrically effective, simple - day to day conversations, use of rhythm and tempo coming together in a realistic setting are prominently visible features of Miller’s Death of a Salesman and subsequently Schlöndorff’s movie adaptation. Therefore we can see how it is quite meticulously connected to the system advocated by Stanislavsky’s “naturalism”.

Works Cited.

Benedetti, Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2000. PDF.

Death of a Salesman: The movie. Dir. Volkar Schlöndorff. Columbia Broadcasting System, 1985. Film

O’Connor, J John. TV Weekend; Hoffman in ’Death of a Salesman’. 13th September 1985. The New York Times. < http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/13/arts/tv-weekend-hoffman-in-death-of-a-salesman.html>

Pitches, Jonathan. Vsevolod Meyerhold. London: Taylor and Francis, 2003. Print.