In class today I watched the movie adaptation of Arthur Miller's play “Death of a Salesman”. I was surprised to find Dustin Hoffman, who was only 48 when the movie was made, played the part of Willy Loman, the 60 year old main character. He pulled it off perfectly though, a fact that genuinely impressed me. The other thing that surprised me were the breaks in the set. The walls of the apartment were not connected and I could see parts of the background I didn't think I was supposed to be see. This threw me off since I am used to seeing movies where the set meshes together seamlessly.
Overall, I thought it was an excellent adaptation. The actors seemed to use the dialogue verbatim from the original text. I did however feel the lines were read faster then I expected. When I read the text in my book, in my mind the characters talked slower then in the movie. I suppose this is due to the fact that when I read the text, I forgot to account for the natural rate of human speech. This was my first time reading this play and I have to say, I enjoyed it. Going in, I anticipated being bored, but I felt quite the opposite by the end of the first act.
