Volker Schlöndorff of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman and John Malkovich as Biff. Both actors won Emmys for their performances and Schlöndorff was nominated for an Emmy for his direction. The film premiered on television in 1985 and was released theatrically throughout Europe over the following years. Schlöndorff followed this with another TV movie in the US, "A Gathering of Old Men", based on the novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines. The film stars Richard Widmark, Holly Hunter and Lou Gossett Jr. and concerns racial discrimination in 1970s Louisiana. Schlöndorff returned to
Death of a Salesman (1951 film) thrived on it, and there were no problems at all". Eventually, the very attitude that led Columbia to commission the intro led to the failure of "Death of a Salesman": People and businessmen in the political climate of the 1950s tried to distance themselves from a film depicting American failure. Benedek took great care in making the film a close transcription of the play. In many places, the film uses Miller's lines verbatim, sometimes leaving out only small lines of dialogue. However, the playwright claimed the movie was ruined by the truncation of key scenes. In fact, the playwright had