Voyager (film) of the war. The main character shows some resemblance to Frisch, a frustrated architect turned author. German director Volker Schlöndorff, who already directed an Oscar-winning film, "The Tin Drum" (1979), moved to New York in the mid-1980s to make a television adaptation of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. By 1987, with his career stalled and his marriage breaking up, the 47-year-old Schlöndorff could perhaps identify with the novel's main character, Walter Faber, and he decided to make a film based on the novel. After acquiring the film rights, Schlöndorff turned to Rudy Wurlitzer,
Death of a Salesman (1951 film) no involvement with or control over the movie. Benedek also stressed the dreary, middle class setting of the film, using small rooms and gray shots. Though the film won over many film critics and received nominations for many awards, it was a box office failure. The subject matter, the failure of the American dream, did not appeal to many of the era's moviegoers. Miller himself denounced the adaptation of his play, claiming the actors all sounded like "Willy Loman with a diploma, fat with their success". He also claimed that, though he wrote the play cinematically, Benedek managed to "chop