The Salesman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Salesman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 4, 2017

Gradually, but steadily, Middle Eastern cinema has seen an upswing in wider worldwide reach and certainly in quality of product. Wadjda is one of the best movies one is ever going to see. Asghar Farhadi (The Past, A Separation) is one of the finest filmmakers on the planet. A true master craftsman of storytelling, capturing the emotional essence of a moment and depth of a narrative with startling efficiency, shaping characters with the precision of a renaissance sculptor, and constructing a film with a captivating lifelike essence, his films have become critical must-sees for both the study and enjoyment of the cinematic medium. His latest, and Oscar-winning, is The Salesman, a film heavily influenced by, and including performed scenes of, Playwright Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. It is another triumphant Farhadi film about life, this time focusing on the mental and emotional aftermath of a violent attack on the body.

Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are married and together share the stage as actors. Their lives are interrupted, and will be changed forever, when their building begins to come down around them. They evacuate safely and are relocated to a new home with the help of fellow thespian Babak (Babak Karimi). As Rana is relaxing in her new surroundings, she is attacked. Emad returns home to find a blood trail leading into his apartment and his wife missing. He finds her at the hospital; she has suffered a grievous head wound. She recovers and returns home a changed person. She's understandably upset and afraid. The episode begins to disrupt their latest production, Death of a Salesman, and fearing for his wife's mental and physical well-being Emad begins to piece together clues and track down the individual responsible for the assault.

The Salesman is a film built on emotion. It's presented in contrasting styles, the manufactured emotion of a performance and the authentic emotion of real life. The two occasionally intersect, with life's hardships and understandable mental anguish crossing over into the performance arts. The movie explicitly, but honestly, and very much absorbingly, examines the human condition from the perspectives of fear and want for revenge. It's a simple story of an individual assaulted and the resultant turmoil for the one who has been attacked as well as for her husband, who seeks out those responsible. The movie isn't a violent, blood-soaked sort of story, though. It's a journey through the emotional processes. Some altercations and some mild clandestine investigative work come into play as basic story advancement devices, but the movie is much more concerned with the inward strife rather than the outward actions. The latter only serves to play to the former. Farhadi crafts the film majestically, with a simple but absorbing cadence and story that reveals a significant level of depth with every new action or revelation. It's wonderful cinema, balancing outward simplicity with inward complexity, the best kind of moviemaking and exemplified here.

The Salesman is so well put together that it truly transcends the language barrier,. the film thrives on its performances (and, of course, Farhadi's razor-sharp script) and the actors are so well-versed in the art of characterization and understanding of the individuals they play and the emotions they feel that the movie absolutely works on sight and feel alone. Obviously, it's better to watch with subtitles on to understand the nuance Farhadi has written into the story and follow its more basic plot machinations that contribute to and influence the wider dramatic current, but the film is so well assembled behind the camera and the actors so strong in front of it that it's absolutely possible to watch the film, appreciate it, feel it, and understand it even without the benefit of its word-for-word translation. There could be precious few higher praises for a film, and it's so much more rewarding than all of the admittedly fun but mostly empty mass-produced culture fluff and filler coming out of Hollywood anymore.

The Salesman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Salesman is one of the increasing number of digitally photographed motion pictures that are inching closer to the textural beauty of film. The image is razor-sharp, texturally complex, and richly colorful. It's never digital-flat or glossy, instead finding a natural depth and distinction across every frame. Details are practically impeccable. The image's inherent robustness takes full advantage of the 1080p resolution, revealing every fine facial pore and hair, clothing line and material detail, and environmental item, including in school classrooms and apartment homes. The stage is easily the film's most visually exciting area. Scuffs on the floor and smaller details on furnishings and walls, particularly as they're well-lit and contrasted against a darker background, bring out their best. Colors are full and vibrant, very natural and neutral. Attire is the clear-cut winner, but supportive background details are also very well saturated. Skin tones appear accurate. Black levels are very deep but prone to a little extra source noise and display a little crush during a darkened classroom scene about halfway through. Otherwise, the image is very strong, showing no serious source or encode flaws.

The Salesman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Salesman features a good, albeit rather basic based on the film's sonic needs, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack in the native Farsi language. English subtitles are included. The track is fairly straightforward. Music plays with solid enough width and good core clarity throughout the range. Light city atmospherics help to lightly pull the audience in. Car sound effects, whether heard from inside as its engine pushes it forward and other cars slosh by in either direction in the rain or from the outside during a very slow, clandestine pursuit later on, offer enough width and depth and clarity to please. Dialogue propels the majority, and it's presented as well as one would expect, with impeccable placement, prioritization, and definition.

The Salesman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Salesman contains one featurette. A Conversation with Writer-Director Asghar Farhadi (1080p, 15:30) features the filmmaker discussing the process of crafting the film, including forming the initial idea, influences, film structure, cast and performances, crafting various scenes, character dynamics, and more. In Farsi with English SDH subtitles. No DVD or digital copies of the film are included.

The Salesman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Salesman might not quite reach the sheer level of excellence of Farhadi's other masterpiece works, The Past and A Separation, but the filmmaker's approach remains the same. He again proves himself a world-class storytelling and cinematic tactician, finding remarkable balance and flow to his film as it offers incredible insight into the human condition. Pacing is perfect, performances are impeccable, and the film is a must-see not so much as an entertainment vessel but as a wonderful example of the cinema medium's elegance at its peak. Sony's Blu-ray offers top-level video and audio. Supplements are unfortunately limited to a single interview. Highly recommended.