Though the Maysles brothers had made several documentaries about celebrities (Showman!, on film producer Joseph E. Levine; and What's Happening: The Beatles in the USA), it was a group of Bible salesman who provided them with their breakthrough to a larger audience. Critical acclaim and showings at theaters specializing in foreign and independent product made Salesman the must-see documentary of 1969 and brought much attention to the cinéma vérité movement. In the late '60s, Paul Brennan and his colleagues come off like throwbacks to another era: men dressed in conservative suits working on their sales prospects one at a time, face-to-face. True to the precepts of cinéma vérité, the Maysles (and their co-director Charlotte Zwerin) don't try to pass judgment on their subjects, though it's difficult to determine whether the filmmakers hit Brennan at a bad time (he has trouble making any sales on camera) or they are recording a metaphorical death of a salesman.