Tin Men (1987)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writer:

Barry Levinson (written by)

Release Date:

6 March 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

The Year - 1963. Selling the American Dream is a risky, funny business - you could wind up paying with your wife!

Plot:

A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.

Plot Keywords:

1960s | Car Accident | Competing Businesses | Volkswagen Beetle | Seduction

Cast

Richard Dreyfuss	...	Bill 'BB' Babowsky
Danny DeVito	...	Ernest Tilley
Barbara Hershey	...	Nora Tilley
John Mahoney	...	Moe Adams
Jackie Gayle	...	Sam
Stanley Brock	...	Gil
Seymour Cassel	...	Cheese
Bruno Kirby	...	Mouse
J.T. Walsh	...	Wing
Richard Portnow	...	Carly
Matt Craven	...	Looney
Alan Blumenfeld	...	Stanley
Brad Sullivan	...	Masters
Michael Tucker	...	Bagel
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Nellie

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Bandai Films

Trivia:

The bar/restaurant scenes were filmed in the Westview Lounge near Baltimore. During a break in production, Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss gave each other hair cuts in the back parking lot of the restaurant. The restaurant has since been sold and torn down. It is becoming a Walgreens.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When the salesmen are receiving their commissions in 1963, the lounge band is playing "The Girl From Ipanema" to which patrons are singing along. The actual album by Stan Getz that brought the famous song to the USA was not released until March 1964.

Quotes:

Nora Tilley: If we went on a picnic it would be fun.
Ernest Tilley: I don't understand a picnic. We go someplace, we put a thing on the ground and eat.
Nora Tilley: Yeah, it's nice to do that.
Ernest Tilley: Why? I don't get it. It's better sittin' in front of the TV.
Nora Tilley: I happen to think there's somethin' nice about a picnic. It's fun.
Ernest Tilley: What's fun about it? Ants get in the food - there's bees. I don't get it. You have to drive - it takes you maybe an hour to get there. And then whataya do? You sit on the grass and eat. Why is that fun?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Willie Nelson (#12.12)" (1987)

Soundtrack:

Social Security

Deserves More Recognition

I have never quite understood why this flick has not achieved more critical and popular acclaim. I rate it a 9, which is very high for me (10s are reserved for a handful of all time classics). Beyond the great acting, super dialogue, and tremendous comedy -- which everyone seems to recognize -- there is also a very serious movie inside. Of course, as everyone says, it's an interesting slice of Americana: Baltimore in the early 1960s (before the flood). And on that basis alone, Tin Men is a great film. Few movies have ever given such an accurate portrayal of a particular time and place in America as well as this one.

But the movie is more than that. Tin Men is a story in which the historical tension between America's atavistic entrepreneurial spirit (as exemplified by the "tin men") and the regulatory forces of the state (as exemplified by the "investigating commission") are at an important crossroads. From the start it's obvious that the tin men have no chance and will lose this fight. It's a passing of a way of life. Much in the tradition of other great American works of art that examine the trade of salesman (Death of a Salesman, etc.), Tin Men is an indepth (and very funny) portrait of their psychological and social world. Their world outlook is now dying and there is a touch of wistfulness about that passage in the film. Are we as viewers supposed to be sad about it too? Or should we be happy? After all, the life of a tin man was hard and brutal (as well as free): witness the death of one of them to a heart attack.

On the other hand, is this way of life genuinely dying or just metamorphisizing? The ending was excellent because it brought ambiguity to that question. When DeVito and Dreyfus spot a new business opportunity: Volkswagens, we realize these "tin men" are irrepressible! They won't be stopped despite the new regulatory environment of the modern world. For my money, this movie is Barry Levinson's best by far. (Excellent soundtrack by Fine Young Cannibals, as well.)