Tin Men (1987)

[Flick James]

I saw this movie in the 80’s when it came out, have seen it a few times since, and I’ve always been a little intrigued by it. However, it was not a very successful film, and I never really hear much about it.

Directed by Barry Levinson, this film fits into his series of nostalgic “Baltimore” films such as Diner, Avalon, and Liberty Heights. The film stars Richard Dreyfus and Danny De Vito as rival aluminum siding salesmen in 1963 Baltimore, locked in an unscrupulous game of revenge over a fender-bender at the beginning of the film.

I really liked this film. It was very well done in it’s period placement. The movie absolutely screams early 60’s. It also portrays the slick and sleazy world of guys to live on their ability to sell, and the lengths to which they’ll go, legal or otherwise, to get the signature. They are that piece of Americana this is for better and for worse, and really, aluminum siding is nearly irrelevant, as the same guys could be pushing cars, vacuum cleaners, or land in Florida. This film just places the sleazy salesman in that time and place when the American dream could be enhanced by the everyman by slapping some panels of aluminum on the side of their house.

The film also portrays brilliantly the lengths to which these archetypes will go to appease their egos and warped senses of morality. Punctuated in all of this are these little moments when such unscrupulous men are able to temporarily suspend their petty games for the sake of doing something good, but only when they’re forced to confront and be honest about their natures, and only for a moment. At one point, Dreyfus’s character sums it up well when he says “I have a lot of training in deceipt. It’s an occupational hazard.”

I sold cars for a year and have a bit of understanding of the characters portrayed in this film. They have a unique understanding of human behavior, and use this understanding in unsavory ways. I thought this film captured that brilliantly. It’s not the greatest film ever, and to those who don’t appreciate slower-paced films, it may not appeal to you. I enjoyed it, however.

4/5

[The Burgomaster]

I saw it in the theater during it's original release and really liked it.  I haven't seen it since then, but I do seem to remember the ending was somewhat lame compared to the rest of the movie.

[Flick James]

I saw it in the theater during it's original release and really liked it.  I haven't seen it since then, but I do seem to remember the ending was somewhat lame compared to the rest of the movie.

It was fairly uneventful. Nothing big happened. This is true. I didn't find it to be a bad ending, however. I thought the ending did demonstrate that there was kind of an ending to a livelihood that had been very lucrative to these guys and now it was time to move on and find something else. It was also a little bit melancholy, which is what I think didn't work for a lot of people because it was marketed as a comedy and flowed somewhat like a comedy throughout much of it, but I didn't really see it as a comedy, but more of a comedy/drama, and maybe that's why the ending worked better for me.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I, too, saw this in '87, when it was first released to theaters.

I must say, it is films like this, that are "forgotten" and/or "unsuccessful," that I find far more interesting to remember, than the films that are "remembered" and/or "successful."