Review of Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman, in a tough competition with Long Day's Journey Into Night, is considered to be the best American play ever written. Our branch state university, conveniently located just 2 miles from my home, is presenting Salesman with an imported NY actor playing Loman. I wanted very much to see it but the $35 ticket price stopped me dead in my tracks. So, instead, I got this DVD from the library. Miller wrote his play to be performed live in a theatre, and while I agree that live theatre is the preferred medium, still, I'm grateful that the 1966 performances of Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, both of whom appeared in the original 1949 stage production, have been preserved and are available to us. Both are superb, but Cobb is the star. In this performance he's the equal of Olivier. Although he swallows some of his lines, and makes me wish there were DVD captions for the 'hearing impaired', Cobb is Willy. What did the audiences of 1949, 17 years earlier, think of his Willy? Was Cobb as effective then as he is in 1966? In the 1966 filmed version Cobb was 55, in age closer to the play's 63 year old Willy. Also, another benefit of this DVD over any stage performance is that we see the actors in closeups, which is a major plus. As Norma Desmond said, "We had faces then", meaning that faces, not words, conveyed emotions to an audience. The other actors are all fine, although it's a bit unsettling to see that Hap is very Italian compared to his brother Biff. I'm now reading the play in preparation to viewing this DVD again, and probably a third time. It's that good.