My comments have to do with music credits. Tom Boyd is credited for oboe solos. However, during the closing credits there is a beautiful alto flute solo; definitely not an oboe. I'd like to know who the soloist was. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question. This is not a review. It is a question.

Struggling traveling salesman Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman) returns home to his loving wife Linda (Kate Reid). His former football star son Biff (John Malkovich) has returned home after failing in the outside world. His younger son Happy (Stephen Lang) worships his older brother. In contrast, his neighbor Charley (Charles Durning) raised successful nerdy son Bernard. His dead older brother Ben became a diamond tycoon from nothing and his ideal American dream. His boss Howard Wagner fires him despite his years of service.The style is strip down minimalist. It faithfully does the Arthur Miller play. Its greatness comes from the terrific Hoffman performance. The rest of cast is no slouch. It's TV doing high class American culture and doing it well. Honestly, high school kids studying the play should watch this.

Willy Loman is a salesman, who gets no salary anymore and works with mere commission.He's 63 years old and he's tired of traveling around the country.His wife Linda understands him and loves him.His sons, Biff and Happy are visiting home.Willy has a troubled relationship with Biff.His son once loved and admired his father very much.It all changed when he found out about his father's crime, of committing adultery. Loman is losing his mind.He can be living two times at the same time.He steps from today's world into the past, mostly those joyful times of his life.He speaks with his now deceased brother Ben, who went to Africa and became a wealthy man.I read the original play by Arthur Miller that was published in 1949 pretty recently and liked it very much.Volker Schlöndorff's Death of a Salesman (1985) is a movie version of that.It was seen on Broadway a year earlier.All of the actors are remarkable.There's not one weak performance.Dustin Hoffman, what a perfect choice to play Willy Loman.He's always great but this time he really tops himself.Kate Reid gives a strong performance as Linda Loman.John Malkovich and Stephen Lang are great as the sons, also as the younger versions of them.Louis Zorich is really brilliant as Ben Loman.Charles Durning is excellent as Willy's neighbor and only friend Charley.And so is David S. Chandler as his son Bernard.Jon Polito gives a good performance as Willy's boss Howard.Linda Kozlowski is wonderful as Miss Forsythe.And so is Kathryn Rossetter as Woman from Boston.The strength of the play is in the characters.You care about many of them. you hope something good would happen to Willy, despite his flaws.The title of the play gives away the ending but it's intriguing to find out what events led to that.Death of a Salesman is a great American play and this a great movie made of that play.

Hoffman is an okay actor but he was not up to this role. He comes across simply as a nerdish failure of man and the film misses Miller's point entirely. Possibly the director deserves the blame but the film is a great disappointment. It's not worth seeing.Compare his performance to Lee J. Cobb's tour de force in '66. Cobb breathes life and spirit into this tragic man. And the supporting cast is flawless. Frederick March did a good job back in the '51 film but Cobb IS Willie Loman. He owns the role and trying to replace him is like Steve Martin trying to be Peter Sellars. Some actors just own certain roles and Cobb owns SALESMAN.If you're interesting in seeing this film, get the Lee J. Cobb version. It's the real thing!