Tin Men

Baltimore, 1963. Bill and Ernest sell aluminium siding. They do the same job at different companies and do not know each other. One day their cars collide in a car park. The accident is small; the argument grows. Neither will back down and each looks for ways to hurt the other. In the end Bill decides to seduce Ernest's wife. Meanwhile the state sets up a commission investigating the methods of siding salesmen and both their licences are at risk. Barry Levinson writes and directs. Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito and Barbara Hershey are in the cast. The film is among those Levinson made about Baltimore; he described the city he grew up in across several films. Its best sections are the sales scenes; the methods of going to the door and selling siding are shown in detail and all of them are close to fraud. The diner scenes are what it is known for; the salesmen sit at the table arguing about television series and everyday matters. The matter it works at is the end of a trade; siding selling disappears with regulation and the two men cannot see it. The period detail is careful: the cars, the clothes and the Baltimore of those years. Its limit is structure; the feud strand begins to repeat and the woman's part is underwritten. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties American comedy drama and character driven narratives. Who it is not for: the pace is scattered, the plot thin, and the humour dry.