TIN MEN (DVD/1.85/DD/FR-SP-SUB) DVD

Tin Men
The second of director Barry Levinson's Baltimore Trilogy (the first was Diner, the third Avalon), Tin Men seems at first glance to be much ado about nothing. Set in 1963, the story begins when two aluminum siding salesmen, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, are involved in a traffic accident. Fueled by their own individual frustrations--Dreyfuss dislikes the phonier aspects of his profession, while DeVito is unhappily married to Barbara Hershey--the two men begin an all-out war of harassment against one another. DeVito goes on a destructive rampage against Dreyfuss' material possessions, while Dreyfuss contrives to steal away DeVito's wife. An ironic twist of fate ironically, brings the two men to common ground at the finale. As with the earlier Diner, Levinson spends a great deal of screen time showing small minds obsessed with small things: counterpointing the snow-balling hostilities between Dreyfuss and DeVito is Jackie Gayle as DeVito's partner, who can talk of nothing but the TV series Bonanza. Michael Tucker, who like Barry Levinson was Baltimore born and bred, repeats his Diner role as "Bagel." Listen for director Levinson's voice as a baseball stadium announcer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Richard Dreyfuss as Bill "BB" Babowsky Danny DeVito as Ernest Tilley Barbara Hershey as Nora Tilley John Mahoney as Moe, Partner to "BB" Jackie Gayle as Sam, Tilley's Partner Stanley Brock as Gil Seymour Cassel as Cheese Bruno Kirby as Mouse J.T. Walsh as Wing Richard Portnow as Carly Matt Craven as Looney Alan Blumenfeld as Stanley Brad Sullivan as Master Michael Tucker as Bagel

Crew Steven Saxton - Associate Producer Kim Kurumada - Associate Producer Gloria Gresham - Costume Designer Albert M. Shapiro - First Assistant Director Barry Levinson - Director Stu Linder - Editor David Steele - Composer (Music Score) Fine Young Cannibals - Composer (Music Score) Andy Cox - Composer (Music Score) Irving Buchman - Makeup Peter Jamison - Production Designer Peter Sova - Cinematographer Mark Johnson - Producer Phillip Abramson - Set Designer Bill Phillips - Sound/Sound Designer Barry Levinson - Screenwriter

Tin Men
Barry Levinson's episodic comedy on the feud of a couple of aluminum-siding hustlers is often a very funny outing which never meshes convincingly. Returning to the Baltimore of the early '60s, the site of his classic Diner, the director focuses on some older but hardly wiser characters, a pair of "tin men" whose pride in the fraudulence of their sales techniques makes the film something of a Glengarry Glen Ross "lite." Levinson underscores the insecurities of this tribe of capitalist warriors who enjoy bragging about the size of their Caddys and the stupidity of the marks they've just scammed. Danny DeVito, who long ago cornered the market on maniacally petty characters, plays the loudest of the lot, a man so on edge that a simple fender-bender can ignite an escalating orgy of mutual property destruction. The irascible and more successful Richard Dreyfuss character he battles is slightly less crazy, and it is he who finally begins to connect his unhappiness with the dishonesty of his livelihood. If Levinson misses the mark in reaching for a weightier conclusion than the loosely structured script can bear, the film yields at least one immortal comic turn in stand-up Jackie Gayle's running schtick on the more dubious aspects of television's then-popular Bonanza. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
 

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General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish Sound Processing: DDS: Dolby Digital Surround Additional Features: Deleted scene introduced by Barry Levinson Audio commentary with writer/director Barry Levinson, producer Mark Johnson, costume designer Gloria Gresham, and actors Richard Dreyfuss, Barbara Hershey, Bruno Kirby, Seymour Cassel, and John Mahoney Dolby Digital Surround Sound Widescreen (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 televisions French and Spanish subtitles DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 108 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 0. Scene Selection 1. Opening Titles/Cadillacs Collide [7:01] 2. Aluminum Siding [9:47] 3. Playing Tit for Tat [10:53] 4. Hardball [9:32] 5. Mrs. Tilley [8:18] 6. Minor Annoyances [9:25] 7. Not Another Tin Man [9:27] 8. Eggs and Tomatoes [4:13] 9. You Can't Eat Good Times [6:06] 10. Nora and BB [6:49] 11. Evidence [7:58] 12. Not That Honorable [2:23] 13. Home Improvement Commission [10:02] 14. End Credits [7:13]