Slasher

Saw Slasher, a film which, in spite of its title, is a documentary about a high-pressure used car salesman, called a "slasher." He travels from car sale to car sale, with his "mercenary" DJ and salesman in tow. I don't know where the director found this guy but he's fascinating. He's simultaneously repulsive and loveable. Probably suffering from some form of ADD, he constantly twitches and shakes, his high-adrenaline patter very effective for moving cars, but impossible for relationships. He drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, and has been "inside" as he puts it. He only ever calms down (to merely excited levels) when he talks about his wife and two daughters whom he obviously loves very much (although they seem to live in a storage unit. I think I misunderstood this though. That's a bit too weird.) In one scene he calls his wife from outside a strip-bar, one cigarette in his mouth and a second one (also lit) in his beer-holding hand to tell her that he's okay and he loves her. Later on, he talks at length about how sweet his wife is and reveals that he doesn't think he deserves her. He wonders aloud what she sees in him. Like I say, he's repulsive but loveable.

His partners in crime, the DJ and salesman, are respectively a mild-mannered man and an eternally frustrated joker. The salesman is great on camera, utterly un-self-conscious, funny, and friendly. The three of them are summoned to the grotesquely impoverished Memphis, Tennessee where they must move 30 cars in 3 days. They hit upon the gimmick of having one secret car that's being sold for only $88 (as one winner remarks, "It sure drives like an 88 dollar car.") Enticed by this deal, waves and waves of hostile, suspicious, poor people haggle and dither and make the 30-car goal almost seem completely unreachable. There is some manipulative editing going on, but the frustration of the three as the last day looms is palpable. It kind of got to me and I began to hate the jackass customers for wasting our heroes' time (even though, of course, the patrons are only trying to save money.) One woman haggles for an hour, is ready to sign, calls her father-in-law, re-haggles for another hour and then, finally, signs. The salesman gloats about how he talked her up at the last second and I felt glad for him.

An interesting documentary, it is everything I wish reality TV were. An intimate look into the life of a man I'd never want to actually meet. For a while, we share in even the hopes and dreams of the lowly used car salesman and for a while at least, he becomes human.