Death of a Salesman Hoffman

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is considered one of the greatest examples of 20th century American dramas. See why in this gripping father and son scene brilliantly played by Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich

[@weemikey70]

Just incredible. How they managed to do this 185 times on Broadway the year before without having a collective nervous breakdown is testament to their acting capabilities. I couldn't have done it once. Truly, one of the greatest plays of the modern era.

[@Eden_Rubin_Music]

damn malkovich such a good actor!

[@jamiemueller1881]

One of the world's great plays performed flawlessly. This is the highwater mark for what great acting looks like. Tour de force.

[@mackay10]

One of the best scenes I've ever seen. The emotions are so raw, and the actors are phenomenal. Thank you for posting this!

[@darthbarbie9004]

Everyone should ask themselves: "Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?" If it's not phony- Then it will stay through the flames. If it is phony- then you will see it for what it is. And you can move on. Without quiet desperation.

[@TheVineyarder]

I was fortunate enough to see this on broadway..it was a matinee and I sat next to Maureen Stapleton,which was another thrill! the performance was so powerful it made me shake..this is what theater is all about

[@pR1MeYwL99]

Trying hard to graduate from high school on time, this movie remains one of my favorites of all time.

[@Jcolinsol]

Just walk the fuck away. Just walk the fuck away now. It won't have mattered. Don't waste a moment of your life performing for them. Just leave. Find something that you love and just do it. Don't wait for it. Don't earn it. Just do it.

[@hug5480]

What happened? College?

[@AB-dm1wz]

How are things now?

[@pR1MeYwL99]

@@Jcolinsol I actually received my diploma. I just had to.

[@pR1MeYwL99]

@@hug5480 I took a few courses, but nothing major. Last class I took was Chinese. My wife is from China.

[@DustanMoore]

Such art, such amazing performances!

[@Rob774]

Dustin Hoffman... dropping acting bars!Such a great actor!

[@Sawedoffsamurai]

"I am not a dime! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!" Best line ever....

[@AnnaRossatron]

I just watched this film last night and this is such a powerful scene! I love that they did the setting like a stage production too, it worked superbly

[@OVI-Wan-Kenobi-8]

This play/movie has one of the most depressing endings in play write / movie history.

[@teejay3272]

Doesn't get much better than this. This production was off the hook. The shot where the camera pans up, shows the stage lighting, and pans down is freaking brilliant. This is a play. And these are serious stage actors.

[@jamesdrynan]

This is the supreme difference between stage and screen acting. In film, there's the ability to do a scene over if it's not what the director wants. On stage, it is do or die. No do-overs, no CUT!, nothing but the purity of performance. Miller pulled the flag back on the American Dream and revealed the shadowy reality of failed dreams. Excellent acting from Malkovich and Hoffman.

[@michaelmancini8780]

I saw this on Broadway a couple months back. The “I’m not a dime a dozen I’m Willy Loman,” made me ugly cry. God, I love this play.

[@ryleighrivera8038]

i have to watch this clip for school, and i also though it was really funny.

[@teejay3272]

If you haven't watched this entire production you should. The brilliance is that very early on the camera pans up and you can see they're performing in a theater setting. From then on it takes on an entirely different perspective. BRILLIANT acting, writing and directing. As good as it gets.

[@robertbroatch4263]

Why am I trying to be something I don't want to be? The tragic plight of the everyday working stiff.

[@danielb337]

I love Dustin Hoffman he is an amazing actor and he and John malcovitch did an amazing job in this movie

[@lyounta]

I love John Malkovich. He is so great. Love this scene.

[@gregorylightcatcher1058]

One of the great American plays, or any. Hoffman tries very hard and does get an intensity, but often too shrill. It is John Malkovich who electrifies this with his performance, he lives the part and we are caught up in his voice, behavior and performance.

[@SuperMan-yw8gm]

+Gregory Lightcatcher i agree about the malkovich part. my godd, what a performance. felt everything

[@lucindaarmour4685]

Agree agree. Hoffman is delivering a brilliant observed piece, very technical but very effective (I imagine when this production was on stage it was even more effective) but Malkovich IS THE ROLE, in this scene in particular - a living and breathing representation of everything that destroys people and the fear of failure that leads them to live desperate lives. Such astonishing writing.

[@patriceaqa288]

Hoffman was NO Jack Lemmon from glengarry glenross that's for sure

[@robertdubs9466]

Two years after this movie, John Malkovich played Tom Wingfield in a movie version of Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie". But when you analyze it carefully, Biff and Tom are basically the same character. Both are a browbeaten and disillusioned son of a loving but overbearing parent, and in the end, they both have to leave the family, on less-than-good terms, to save themselves.

[@TheVineyarder]

I was lucky enough to see it on broadway also with Dustin,John Malkovitch ,Kate Reid..this post was such a treat to see that scene again ..thanks...and we sat next to Maureen Stapleton to boot!

[@seanhawthorne65]

I'm having such a surreal moment right now. I was brought to this video because I was watching Synecdoche, New York, written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. I searched "death of a salesman philip seymour hoffman" on the KZbin search bar, and this is the first video that came up. It just so happens that it accidentally brought me to this same play, but the play includes John Malkovich. Both of these two actors played manifestations of Charlie Kaufman's mind, and are connected profoundly. So weird that I am experiencing this connection in other ways in my own life. Thank you Charlie...

[@veneratlazulum2033]

This scene is more disturbing than many horror movies. I would feel more comforted watching the shining than this scene.

[@bibibipapipa]

This scene left me speechless… absolutely beyond words…

[@charlesfosterkane1966]

Jesus Christ, Hoffman is freaking brilliant in this

[@jalensera]

Beautifully acted and beautifully written.

[@yyzx_6668]

that’s fr some incredible acting

[@priyac7054]

This scene was enacted in real life in my house this year. Damn life really imitates art and unknowingly so.. BUT IT IS life that imitates art :')

[@priyac7054]

@Michael Ryan trying to make it better everyday

[@Splooie128]

The point is that that in America you are lead to believe that through hard work you can reach the top, and set yourself apart. That's drilled in to you from the moment you enter the school system. The flip-side of the individual spirit (which I'm totally for) is that when/if you fall short, who do you blame? Is Willy the victim of society, or his own worst enemy? I don't think either Biff or Willy is right, how could you know? In the end, I think this is a play about futility.

[@setpunks13]

Great play. Miller was big on poking holes in the American dream. Crucible, All My Sons. This seemed like his take on the post-new deal feeling of "we got through the depression and ww2, but now we're just a bunch of cogs"

[@SuperMan-yw8gm]

+Gazzara5 no, but the tragedy is greater when there is an empty dream to poke a hole in

[@SuperMan-yw8gm]

i'm saying that the existence of the idea of an 'american dream' is helpful for people who write tragedies. expectations and hopes are great for tragedy. shattered hopes and dreams = quality tragedy. its hard to make a tragedy where there was no hope to begin with.

[@ManweArcadio]

This is so powerful..... I sometimes get hesitant watching it because it is so good.

[@TheMoonunit96]

this is one of the most beautiful, moving scenes I have ever witnessed in a movie.

[@seandineen999]

Whenever someone does something cockeyed in my house, we say, "You had to go and flunk math."

[@maridepp53]

I have never seen this version but after watching this powerful scene definitely plan to.

[@gokberkkaya]

maridepp53 this is by far the best adaptation of the screenplay

[@collettewoodbourne667]

I remember studying this at A level. Hoffman, an amazing actor....

[@yahyakhalid6160]

Hoffman truly is.

[@yahyakhalid6160]

And do they really teach this in A levels???

[@SuperMan-yw8gm]

i watched this and cried like a bitch in front of my girlfriend

[@madam-mint]

I don't blame you! I think we all cried a bit.

[@mackay10]

Super Man Me too...it's an extremely emotional scene.

[@Frank66047]

Such a powerful scene and so well acted!

[@ribenariver]

I love this adaptation, and I love this play.

[@aroveranalysis9978]

This is all but still applicable to american society, the father who thought he came from the bottom and could see his son do the same. The son making him realize him and the family were always at the bottom.

[@Schoolgirl325]

Biff struggled a bit, but ultimately, none of them are really at the bottom of the totem pole in American society either. They’re just average middle class citizens who worked hard and made just enough to live in moderate comfort. Willie can’t accept that he and his family are just like everyone else.

[@jananaana8039]

When your parents have too high of an expectation of you. This scene hit me harder now than it did when I was in high school.

[@ajajaahah5286]

Thank you timothee chalamet for introducing me to this scene

[@marcioventura3135]

Why him?

[@jasminexc783]

Márcio Ventura he played a role in a movie where he did part of this as a monologue in a drama competition.. its really good

[@richardharrow1946]

That kid is a hack

[@flaneur8469]

4:00. The most devastating kiss in American art.

[@Chrissanthumum]

Brilliant! This makes me want to reread the play and watch the movie.

[@LogansGeeTar]

I was forced to watch this in school but god damn do I love it. Such good acting.

[@johnreincodilla7605]

I'm looking for a monologue to perform for a contest I joined in on school, then I came across this... Guess what I'm going to present then?

[@doreinpaulemmanuel3614]

wow !!!!!! is that John Malkovich!!!!! somebody !!! kill me ! DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HE LOOKS NOW?

[@MrRazorblade999]

I think most people know how he looks like now. Your point being?

[@tiffanyjoiner6287]

Dorein Paul Emmanuel Check him out in The Glass Menagerie as well. His final monologue is brilliant

[@robertbroatch4263]

This was 1985, been some rough years for John for sure.

[@BigManPigMan628]

Such great acting, you'd think the actors were really living it.

[@vasilijevukmirovic1944]

best scene...

[@FormerlyNYVulgarian]

Dynamite acting from such screen legends!

[@wingchun2145]

Have to say, reading the play was soooo much better than watching it. What an amazing, touching play.

[@alexandervue9464]

John Malkovich was stellar in this film

[@riou42]

I’m here because of AP English when I was a senior in high school.

[@robroberts1473]

If you see that scene and it doesnt get to you emotionally your not human. How can actors on stage do that kind of scene night after night it is an amazing talent if they can.

[@langelodidio-goaldo1105]

Stupenda pellicola per la televisione, non è chissà che cosa ma comunque è gradevole da seguire, quindi stupenda e stupenda per me come valutazione è 8.

[@KrisMavericko]

POWERFUL

[@hellenicsunshine7032]

I love this RAWNESS

[@joel8038]

Willy," What is he crying for?"

[@theflyingluxman5653]

WOW! JUST WOW!

[@longlost247]

i think if someone wrote a sequel to the book it would be interesting

[@joewalsh4769]

it's okay Lennie

[@kendallevans4079]

Shows you what a talent Malkovich was before he went down the "Hollywood" path to drivel like ConAir.

[@mychillbase]

thats what i have to tell my dad.

[@nyy190343]

Well I'm practically- No you are practically full of it 😄

[@ronanthemfchosen]

My right ear really enjoyed this

[@jessedan2]

this is the best version of this play

[@lucasrackley250]

Movies and plays with dialogue like this only make sense when you get older.

[@Keckv]

Holy shit this was intense. Came here to get some inspiration and watch this with a profesional eye but ended up crying 😅

[@bmyrab]

Exactly. It's such a personal play.

[@mariabugeja3562]

John Malkovitch

[@fabulous21206]

John malkavich is a great actor from this movie to 2023

[@zackgomez6910]

Can anybody believe I have never seen this play before?

[@youngbased1952]

you little shit, yes i do

[@anserhasan]

Made me wanna cry

[@HamstersInBlenders]

This really is the great American tragedy.

[@janjablonsky]

Hoffman is probably still evacuating the scenary.

[@Eldorito99]

Sorry but i don't think there has been more than 10 scenes in all of cinema that have reached that level of greatness through drama since it was produced. They don't make drama like this anymore.

[@dennisparkson124]

John Malkovich's performance here was UN BELIE VA BLE. Jesus

[@hootiepaladin]

Intense.

[@KSfan4ever]

And.....this is how it's done.

[@Nantchev]

I did this for GCSE English back in 2007 - 8.

[@itwontcomeout5678]

Junior Year (age 17) English class in Glenview , IL, USA back in 2011-2012 :P

[@madwor1d]

I just finished reading the book and I don't understand what was wrong with there being a hose? Can someone please explain

[@ribenariver]

Willy was trying to commit suicide with it. His wife pretended not to notice it, she'd just readjust it or something, showing her denial. Biff, in this scene, confronts him about it.

[@0racle.sunrise3570]

Willy was getting suicidal. Linda felt too ashamed to confront or reach out to him but Biff decided to do it himself.

[@bmyrab]

Totally the greatest playwright.

[@smoothcriminal28]

there are few that can equal dustin hoffman in intensity when hes on it... and malkovich is one of them.

[@wslee6]

Oh~~ Biff

[@portrait1916]

that kiss lol

[@joemostler2702]

SPITE BIFF SPITE

[@WilliamSlaght]

true!

[@marcioventura3135]

Nice, but I really prefer the classic original scene from Death Of A Salesman. Both Malkovich and Hoffman are great actor, but it seems a lack of direction. Malkovich screams in parts which words doesn't mean anything and the behavior is not getting anywhere, the tension goes up and down and so

[@LoveBexxxxx]

JOHN MALKOVICH.

[@Iwillneverwin]

Personally I prefer Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal as it was the first time I had ever seen the production, but Dustin Hoffman is also brilliant in a different, more subtle way. PSH's version was played much bigger.

[@TelescopeTwin]

Gosh this is sobering

[@LuisPBE]

@lullachild Do you know how close is this film to Miller's original script?

[@weatherkop]

I WAS ACTING!

[@Walkingshadow1]

What a tour de force. How do they do it? Got a bit of an edge on crap like Sharknado and the Lone Ranger, eh?

[@samfilmkid]

"SPIIIITE!!!"

[@scalabrineplayoff3pt46curr7]

Is it his sons fault he died? The final scene made it seem like they didn't even care but only the mom

[@gokberkkaya]

Metalic Groin Its the systems and american "dream"s fault

[@eugenechun4140]

And I stopped and I realized who I am,so why can't I stop these psycho therapy sessions, Willie?! Why am I so addicted to drama Willie?! I suppose that's my fault... It's nobody fault Willie.... Why do I need so much unnecessary drama in my life? Why do I need to have more psycho drama sessions with myself when there's more unnecessary drama waiting for me out there? Now why can't I do that Willie? Would you let go of all this drama? Can we stop these psychotherapy sessions?

[@theautomator8372]

Had to do this for a class a few years ago. Wasn't anywhere near as good as this. I got a B though so there's that

[@dwetick1]

I still don't understand this play...even though I' ve seen it on stage twice. So you are a dime a dozen...so what, all glory is fleeting for everyone. You make your mark, and then you are passed up...that's the way it is for everybody, from janitors to presidents.

[@thewolf2153]

Maybe, you understood it perfectly.

[@dgreen1233]

biff makes me look like willy loman