The film revolves a recently-divorced woman who meets a mechanic who would introduce her to an aging cowboy where she falls for him where they all decide to capture wild horses for money. It is a film that has a simple premise though writer Arthur Miller has created something more complex with its characters as they all try to deal with the modern world around them as the days of the cowboys and horse wrangling waning. Miller’s screenplay is more of a study of people who all face uncertainty in the next stage of their lives with the stripper Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) just getting her divorce as she laments over failure in her marriage as well as the idea of falling in love again. Helping her with her issues is her landlady Isabelle Steers (Thelma Ritter) as well as a mechanic/pilot in Guido (Eli Wallach) who is smitten by her as he would later meet her with his friend in the aging cowboy Gay Langland (Clark Gable). Roslyn and Gay hit it off as they both have dealt with a lot in their lives with the latter having been through relationships while is coping with changing times.
With an idea to capture wild horses as part of a business plan, Gay and Guido decide to get another cowboy in the rodeo rider Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift). Miller also explore the fragility of these characters with Perce being a man that has been in too many rodeos as he is struggling with his finances and takes Gay’s offer to do something. Even as he gets injured at the rodeo where he has a conversation with Roslyn about his own life as he is among the group of broken people that include Roslyn, Guido, and Gay as there is a scene where he calls out for his adult children who have left him after he told them he would be back. The film’s third act is about the capturing of wild horses including mustangs and stallions where Roslyn is taken aback by the cruelty of what the men must do as well as the aftermath yet what is more shocking is how many they find.
John Huston’s direction is exquisite in not just its setting of the American West but also this clash of the old ways and the modern world. Shot on location in and around Reno and Dayton, Nevada with locations in the deserts of the state, Huston uses a lot of wide and medium shots to capture the beauty of the deserts and small towns as it plays into a world that is changing though the traditions of the West such as rodeos and gatherings are still happening. Huston’s direction is often shown in certain places and locations where there is a sense of a modern world overshadowing the old world where Gay would first meet Roslyn at a diner with his dog while the unfinished house that Guido has where Gay would stay at times is set on the desert. Huston would also use close-ups for some scenes in the way characters would interact with one another while also knowing how to film a simple conversation in scenes such as Gay and Roslyn having breakfast or Perce and Roslyn conversing behind the bar. Huston also plays into the male gaze in how men look at Roslyn where there are moments where she does not seem to mind but during a scene where she is hitting a ball with a paddle tied to a string. A man slaps her ass causing some trouble where she is little troubled by it but still brushes it off.
Huston’s approach to shooting the desert and mountain landscapes of Nevada plays into the West that still has its magic but there is also a sense of loss in the land. Even as Guido uses his plane to find wild horses that include mustangs and stallions where he would find them running, Huston’s usage of aerial shots are gorgeous to play into the vastness of the West. For Roslyn, it is a world that she does not know about while learning about what they need to do to capture the horses, and the aftermath is upsetting. There is a great wide shot of her screaming in the desert over the way horses are treated while the men are more upset in how many they captured as it plays into the times and how the West is no longer what it used to be. It becomes something that Gay has trouble accepting where Huston creates a scene of Gay trying to assert his own power only to realize that the world is changing. Overall, Huston crafts a somber yet rapturous film about a former stripper, an aging cowboy, a pilot/mechanic, and a broken-down rodeo cowboy all trying to find the next phase in their lives in the modern world set in the West.
Cinematographer Russell Metty does brilliant work with the film’s black-and-white photography with its usage of natural and available lighting that captures the beauty of the landscape as well as the usage of low-key natural lighting for the scenes at night and in the morning. Editor George Tomasini does brilliant work with the editing as its usage of rhythmic cuts play into the elements of drama and suspense that occurs throughout the film as it is a major highlight of the film. Art directors Stephen B. Grimes and Bill Newberry, with set decorator Frank R. McKelvy, do excellent work with the look of Guido’s home that includes a section that has yet to be built as well as the saloon that all the characters go to during the rodeo. Costume supervisor Jean Louis does fantastic work with the dresses and clothes that Roslyn wears that includes jeans and a shirt when she is riding a horse in one scene as well as the dresses she wears in social engagements.
The special effects work of Cline Jones does terrific work with the scenes involving the rodeo and horse wrangling scenes to play into the sense of realism that happens in those moments. Sound recordists Charles Grenzbach, Philip Mitchell, and R.D. Cook do superb work with the sound as it plays into the way a location is presented whether it is in the quiet scenes in the deserts or the loud and raucous atmosphere of the rodeo. The film’s music by Alex North is incredible for its orchestral score with somber yet swelling string pieces for some of the dramatic moments and bombastic arrangements with its percussions and strings for the suspenseful scenes.
The film’s wonderful ensemble cast feature some notable small roles from Marietta Tree as a girlfriend of Gay he takes to the train station early in the film, Philip Mitchell as Isabelle’s ex-husband she sees at the rodeo, Rex Bell as an old cowboy staring at Roslyn’s ass, James Barton as an old cowboy hanging at the rodeo with his young grandson, Estelle Winwood as a church lady collecting money, and Kevin McCarthy as Roslyn’s ex-husband Raymond who only appears in one scene waiting for her at the courthouse. Thelma Ritter is excellent as Isabelle Steers as Roslyn’s landlady who had seen a lot in her life as she is also someone who does what she can to help Roslyn while often being the wisest person in the room as it an understated yet charming performance.
Eli Wallach is brilliant as Guido as a mechanic/pilot who is smitten by Roslyn as he hopes to give her a decent life as he must contend with Gay while also doing what he can to help Gay in capturing wild horses even though it is a job that is becoming more useless in these changing times. Montgomery Clift is brilliant as Perce Howland as a broken-down rodeo cowboy who is in financial dire straits as he agrees to help Gay and Guido in their job while lamenting over his own misfortunes and numerous injuries in the rodeo where he befriends Roslyn where he also deals with what he has to do in capturing wild horses where Clift shows a lot of conflict in his face as a man who had seen too much.
Finally, there is the duo of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe in their final film performances in their respective roles as Gay Langland and Roslyn Taber. Gable’s performance is phenomenal as this aging cowboy is a man that is trying to find meaning in his old age while also being someone who seeks companionship in Roslyn as he also tries to assert his own masculinity in a world where his ideas of masculinity is becoming futile. Monroe’s performance as Roslyn is tremendous where Monroe displays a fragility and uncertainty of a woman who has been through too many bad relationships and a lack of a future as she is seeking meaning in her own life where she is fascinated by the men she meets while falling for Gay where Monroe has great chemistry with her co-stars as well as showcasing her own rage in a key dramatic moment as it is a career-defining performance from the actress.
The Misfits is an outstanding film by John Huston that features great performances from Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter, and Montgomery Clift as well as spectacular final performances from Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Along with its gorgeous visuals, Alex North’s music score, and Arthur Miller’s gripping and somber screenplay. The film is a dramatic-western that is more about a world where people find themselves unable to adapt to changing times while trying to cope with what they do to live in that new world. In the end, The Misfits is a magnificent film by John Huston.
© thevoid99 2025
(Winner of the Best Screenplay Prize to Asghar Farhadi and Best Actor Prize to Shahab Hosseini at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival)
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman is the story of a married couple who stage their version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman when the wife is assaulted at their new apartment prompting her husband to find out who assaulted her. The film is an exploration of a couple whose marriage is put to the test following an incident that has shaken both of them prompting to find answers as well as some form of resolution. Starring Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti. The Salesman is a rapturous and eerie film from Asghar Farhadi.
The film revolves a married couple who are staging their interpretation of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman as their apartment home building suffers a collapse as they try to find a new home where a fellow actor gives them a temporary apartment that eventually goes wrong when the wife had been assaulted while her husband was about to return home. It’s a film that plays into a man trying to find out who assaulted his wife as she is going through post-traumatic stress disorder which would affect her work in the play. Asghar Farhadi’s script follow the life of Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) who both work as actors in the play while Emad also works as a professor at a nearby university. With the help of their friend and actor Babak (Babak Karimi), Emad and Rana is given a temporary home but there’s a room filled with belongings to a previous tenant who hasn’t returned to get her belongings.
When Rana is attacked and left with a major cut on her head, Emad goes on this search that is the bulk of the film’s second act that is intercut with the performance of Death of a Salesman from Emad, Rana, and other actors which would parallel with the struggles that Emad and Rana are dealing with. Especially in the way Emad feels humiliated for not being there when his wife is attacked as well as unable to help her as she deals with the trauma of her attack. The search for her attacker becomes an obsession as he turns to a student whose father used to work for the police to track down a man who owned the delivery truck that had been parked on the night of the attack. Upon learning the identity of Rana’s attacker, things eventually become problematic.
Farhadi’s direction is definitely intoxicating in terms of the way he approaches theatricality in a country like Iran and the parallels it would have for this couple. Shot on location in Tehran, Farhadi doesn’t go for any kind of familiar locations or certain landmarks but rather set the film entirely in rural areas or in highways to play into a couple that is adjusting to their new situation. The film opens with Emad and Rana dealing with the impending collapse of their apartment as they try to get as many tenants out as it’s shot in one entire take with a hand-held tracking shot to capture the chaos and fear among the people. Then it cuts to Emad and Rana rehearsing with other actors in a theater as Farhadi maintains an intimacy into the staging as it show the actors wanting to create something that is faithful to Miller’s play but provide their own surroundings to make it relatable to their audience. The scenes of the performance of the play are interesting as it showcases the range of emotions from Emad, Rana, and the other actors as it would carry into what is happening into Emad and Rana’s real life as they struggle with Rana’s assault.
Farhadi doesn’t use a lot of wide shots except for a few scenes outside of the apartment or in a patio to get a look in the city as he emphasizes more on close-ups and medium shots. Notably in scenes that play into Emad’s own growing discomfort as there is a bit of humor where he falls asleep in class while his students watch a film as they notice he is asleep. It’s among the few light-hearted moments in the film that include babysitting an actress’ son as they were hoping to watch SpongeBob SquarePants. Still, Farhadi maintains that air of seriousness as it relates to Emad’s search as the third act involves him discovering the identity of the attacker but also some surprising revelations that relates to the previous tenant of the apartment that Emad and Rana live in. Even as it would play into the same paralleling fates that Willy Loman endured in Death of a Salesman where Emad and Rana cope with an event that would shake their marriage. Overall, Farhadi crafts a chilling and evocative film about a couple’s life shaken by an assault from a mysterious man in their new home.
Cinematographer Hossein Jafarian does excellent work with the film’s cinematography as much of it is straightforward for many of the exterior scenes in the day and night with some stylish lighting for the theatrical scenes. Editor Hayedeh Safiyari does brilliant work with the editing as it play into the drama with some jump-cuts in some scenes as it relates to the suspense and drama. Art director Keyvan Moghaddam does amazing work with the look of the theater set for the play in its minimalist format as well as the look of the apartments that the characters live in.
Costume designer Sara Samiee does nice work with the costumes as it is largely straightforward with the exception of the look of the characters in what they wore for the play. Sound designer Mohammad Reza Delpak and sound editor Reza Narimizadeh do fantastic work with the sound in capturing the sparse atmosphere of the theaters as well as the sounds that occur in and out of the apartment as well as in the streets of Tehran. The film’s music by Sattar Oraki is superb for its mixture of string-based music and accordions as it is largely played in accompaniment for the play on the actual set.
The film’s wonderful cast include some notable small roles from Sam Valipour as an actress’ young son in Sadra, Mojtaba Pirzadeh as a delivery truck driver that Emad suspects, Mehdi Koushiki as an actress working on the play, Maral Bani Adam as the play’s director Kati, Emad Emami as Emad and Rana’s friend Ali, Mina Sadati as a neighbor, Babak Karimi as an actor named Babak who helps Emad and Rana find a new place to live, and Farid Sajadhosseini as an old man who might now about who assaulted Rana. Taraneh Alidoosti is incredible as Rana as a woman who is attacked while taking a shower as she becomes traumatized by what happened as she copes with the possibility of being attacked again. Finally, there’s Shahab Hosseini in a spectacular performance as Emad as a professor/actor who copes with the attack of his wife as he feels responsible for what happened as he becomes obsessed with finding her attacker and humiliate him in front of everyone where he also deals with the impact of his discovery.
The Salesman is a magnificent film from Asghar Farhadi that features phenomenal performances from Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti. Along with its ensemble cast, eerie premise, and usage of Death of a Salesman to parallel with its main story. The film is truly a gripping and rapturous drama that has elements of suspense as well as the study of a man’s obsession and his own faults in protecting his wife as it relates to the trials and tribulations of the man he plays in Arthur Miller’s play. In the end, The Salesman is an outstanding film from Asghar Farhadi.
Asghar Farhadi Films: (Dancing in the Dust) – (The Beautiful City) – (Fireworks Wednesday) – (About Elly) – A Separation - The Past - (Everybody Knows (2018 film))
© thevoid99 2018
Directed by Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller: Writer is a documentary film about the life of the famed playwright through many archival interviews and rare home movies shot by Miller’s daughter Rebecca. The film explores Miller’s life as well as his marriages to different women including Marilyn Monroe and photographer Inge Morath who is Rebecca’s mother as well as look into their family life. The result is a compelling and evocative film from Rebecca Miller.
Considered one of the great playwrights of the 20th Century, Arthur Miller was a figure that made an impact on American culture with his plays during the post-war era of the 20th Century. While it may have brought him fame and fortune, he also deal with scrutiny over supposed ties with communists during the Red Scare as well as being in a very publicized marriage to actress Marilyn Monroe from 1956 to 1961. For much of his time being famous and revered by many, Miller remained a man who was quite humble due to his upbringing as he would also choose to live much of his life in his home in Connecticut with his family doing all sorts of things. During this time in the 1980s to the early 2000s, Miller was filmed by his daughter Rebecca for interviews about his life that include conversations with his two siblings and his third wife Inge Morath.
The film is told in six chapters as it relates to Miller’s early life, his success with his plays, his three marriages including his second to Monroe, the Red Scare where he was accused of being a communist, and the period in the 1970s and 1980s where he felt out of place with the world of plays. Yet, much of the footage of Miller being interviewed is filmed by Rebecca who would appear in the camera as she also talks to her uncle Kermit and the actress Joan Copeland who is Rebecca’s aunt. Also interviewed in the film through more recent periods just years after her father’s death in 2005 are Rebecca’s older half-brother Robert, playwright Tony Kushner, and filmmaker Mike Nichols just before his death in 2014 as they’re filmed by Miller and cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Another half-sibling interviewed is Jane who does an audio interview as she and Robert talk about their father’s first marriage to their mother Mary Slattery and some of the regrets their father had over their dissolution.
Robert also talked about the time his father was married to Monroe where she was good to Robert and Jane but they both knew how fragile Monroe was as a person. It was during the production of The Misfits that starred Monroe and was written by Miller is where Miller first met the German-born photographer Morath who would later become his third wife though they only began a relationship just after Miller and Monroe had officially split. Rebecca would make mention of her younger brother Daniel who was born with Down syndrome as she doesn’t have him filmed nor use any photographs of him out of respect for his privacy as she also mentions that she never had the chance to film her father about Daniel whom he and Inge rarely talked about. Yet, Rebecca would also have her father talk about his falling out with filmmaker Elia Kazan over Kazan testifying to congress during the Red Scare as he felt Kazan had been pressured to name names in order to maintain his career. While Miller admitted to having interest in Marxism, he ended up not going along with it as he felt the whole Red Scare was about people becoming liberal against a very conservative period in American history which is partially why he wrote The Crucible.
Much of Rebecca Miller’s direction is straightforward with a lot of the home movies that she cultivated including the interviews and home movies she filmed from the 1980s to the 2000s that include a few she shot with cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Editor David Bartner would cultivate a lot of the home footage including the rare home movies shot by Arthur Miller himself as well as news footage of Miller during the late 1940s to the 2000s including footage of his plays and film contributions. Sound designer Ruy Garcia would compile all of the audio including rare audio interviews with Miller and his daughter Jane as well as audio from others about Miller’s life including his troubling period in the 1970s where he felt out of place from the world as he admitted having no clue about the counterculture as he preferred to follow his own muse. The film’s soundtrack largely consists of jazz music as it play into the world that Miller was including bits of rock as it relates to the late 1960s.
Arthur Miller: Writer is a marvelous film from Rebecca Miller. Not only is it a fascinating portrait of a revered man by his daughter but also a film that allows the man to be seen as someone who is human that has a broad view of the world. Even as it’s a film that allows Miller to show her father as someone that loved life no matter how bad things can be and the mistakes he’s made as a person. In the end, Arthur Miller: Writer is a remarkable film from Rebecca Miller.
Rebecca Miller Films: (Angela (1995 film)) – Personal Velocity: Three Portraits - The Ballad of Jack and Rose - The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Maggie’s Plan
© thevoid99 2018
