TIN MEN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Chronicle of two aluminum-siding salesmen's personal and self-destructive feud is often very funny, sometimes serious, but always engrossing. This is a well-made comedy-drama by the director of DINER and THE NATURAL.
Barry Levinson is quite a good director with films to his name like CATHOLICS, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, DINER, and THE NATURAL. His latest film, which he wrote and directed, is TIN MEN, a new comedy from Touchstone Films, who seem to be able to turn out a film really worth seeing every month or so. They still have OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE playing in theaters, and they have followed it up with TIN MEN, a much more serious comedy, perhaps even a comedy-drama. The film stars two members of the Touchstone repertory company, Richard Dreyfus and Danny DeVito.
TIN MEN is a study in childishness, selfishness, and mania. BB (Dreyfus) and Tilley (DeVito) are both tin men. "Tin men" is slang for aluminum-siding salesman, and like the origin of the name "tin men," these men really have no heart. As director Levinson shows the business (and he should know--his father was a tin man) selling aluminum siding is sleazy enough to make professional wrestling seem honest and forthright by comparison. BB and Tilley have a car accident, damaging each of their Cadillacs, and before long they are totally consumed with the lust for revenge. At first the war is funny, sometimes very much so. But soon it is clear that neither man cares about who is hurt along the way any more than either man cares who is hurt by their business ethics. The government is investigating and closing down salesmen with disreputable business practices and the days of BB's and Tilley's flim-flamming customers are soon to come to an end. But their hatred of each other, because they are so similar, seems to be the only thing on each tin man's mind.
Levinson's ear for dialogue is superb. Conversations he throws in are often more interesting than the plot. He has carefully re-created the Baltimore of 1962, just as he did for DINER. With TIN MEN he has created two memorable if not likable characters and an entire world to put them in. Rate this a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Not up to DINER or THE NATURAL, but a quality film nonetheless.
Mark R. Leeper
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