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By
WADE GOSSETT
If you've been wondering
what happened to director John Landis, who seems
to have gone from cult classics like "The Blues
Brothers" and "Animal House" to nonsense like
"Blues Brothers 2000," don't worry. He can still
make great movies, although " Slasher" is very
different from anything he's done before: Smaller
in scale definitely, it was hardly released
theatrically, and it's also a documentary, an
excellent piece of cinema verité.
Landis camera follows Michael "the Slasher"
Bennett, for one weekend as this California
freelance used car salesman helps a struggling
dealership in Memphis, Tennessee unload its
junkards.
A raspy-voiced, hyperkinetic little man, who
drinks a lot and smokes even more, Bennett is no
ordinary used car salesman. He travels the country
with a DJ and a "mercenary" assistant salesman
helping car dealerships dump their inventories by
spending a few days teaching them the tricks of
the trade and creating enough hoopla to attract
lots of potential customers. Promising to unload
60 automobiles in 48 hours, Bennett's basic
technique -- which he freely volunteers -- is to
get customers so excited about a "great deal" that
they suspend judgment and are thus easily
manipulated into buying whatever Bennett and his
salesmen want to sell them.
Like the best documentary features, "Slasher" is
complicated. Bennett has a family back in
California and he spends the weekend missing them.
One can easily see he's a dedicated family man and
loves his kids. On the other hand, there's little
doubt as to what he does for a living, despite
several attempts to explain it as simply "doing a
job": He tricks the needy and the unwary and the
poor into paying a lot for junky cars. Everything
you've ever thought about used car salesmen, all
your suspicions that they are nothing but amoral
(and often downright immoral) parasites, will be
confirmed.
There are some funny bits, and there's no doubt
"Slasher" is a riveting film. Nevertheless, it's
hardly a comedy -- unless you think of it as a
particularly black comedy. Memphis is not only the
home to Elvis Presley, but also the bankruptcy
capital of the world. And most of the customers
who come by the dealership and are hoodwinked into
getting loans they cannot possibly afford, for
cars that are not only overpriced but also often
downright un-drivable, are poor and uneducated.
The perfect prey. It's depressing to see how they
are emotionally manipulated into parting with
money they do not have. The process is laid bare
for us, and I kept wondering how Bennett, his
salesmen and the dealership management could be so
comfortable in sharing their tricks. There's the
advertised "$88 car," a deal too good to pass up,
which pulls people in (if you they find the car
that is, and even when they do it's not clear
whether it's worth that much); then there's
Bennett's oily charm and sweet talking, and when
that doesn't work, there's some really aggressive
selling, anchored in making the customers feel
guilty -- as if they did something to offend the
salesman. And, of course, every deal is predicated
in having the customer's credit rating established
before anything else. The only thing that can save
you in such an environment is a really lousy
credit history -- although if you're able to bring
in a co-signer with better credit you won't only
get to loose money but also the affection of a
relative or friend.
Landis knows soul, and the "Slasher soundtrack
rivals that of "The Blues Brothers," featuring
some top-notch forgotten favorites from Sam &
Dave, Booker T. and the MG's, and Otis Redding.
Special features include a commentary track from
Landis and crew, several deleted scenes and a
making-of featurette.
"Slasher" is devastating. Watch it. |
