‘Isn’t that – isn’t that remarkable? Biff – he likes me!’
1) Consider your impressions of Willy Loman as interpreted by Dustin Hoffman. How does Hoffman create ‘Loman’ and are there any aspects of his interpretation that you found enlightening or limiting? Is his physicality essential to your understanding of his character? Did he irritate with his perpetual motion and was that the point of Hoffman’s interpretation? What of his ‘tics’? How far does he dominate the film? Or does Malkovich’s delivery of Biff challenge the authority of Hoffman?
2) Why is Loman so preococcupied with being ‘liked’ in film and play and how far is this realisation above the tragic summary of the entire play? Why is Uncle Charley so awkwardly treated by Loman in the play/film(‘He is liked, but he’s not – well liked…’ ) and how far does the film allow us to comprehend Loman’s ambivalence? Think about Charley’s relationship with Bernard.
3) How is the past rendered in the film? Does this device work for you in terms of guiding your reading of the ‘nostalgia’ of Loman’s recollections? Does it destabilise the relationship of past to present or even of present to past? Are they always clearly separated or is there great ambiguity and fluidity between past and present? Why?
4) Why does Ben always wear white? What is he to Loman and how does the film make this explicit? Does he encourage Willy’s suicide? How is this rendered in the final scene? Why is Linda more ambivalent?
5) Is Biff violent? And why does he steal? Are these flaws largely ignored in the film? Why?
6) No one listens to Happy. His name ironises his entire life which seems based on ignoring his personal redundancy within the family. How does the film highlight his extraneousness? How is he framed?
7) List your own ‘revelations’in the film. Did the film help your understanding of the play? How? Did you enjoy the music or did you find it forced the emotional meanings/resonances of certain scenes?
8) Can you think of anything you missed in the film? Or did you enjoy the compression of the play?