Instead, however, Bob chooses to discuss Christianity with the potential client and later defends his decision to Larry and Phil as more important than selling lubricant. This significance of this revelation saves the film from its more melancholy meandering and explains why the figure of the salesman continues to operate as a focus of both film and theater. The Big Kahuna 's most valuable lesson is that everyone, in some way, is a salesman. Every day, with stories, arguments, actions and discussions, we're all selling something. Whether it's a political opinion, a religious belief, or simply one's image, everyone has something to sell.
Human beings interact with one another in a vast market of exchange, of pitch and purchase.
In fact, this very review that you're reading now is a pitch, an expression of an opinion that might, in some fashion, be bought by the reader or else left on the rack. Though we may have learned this lesson long ago from Arthur Miller, it bears repeating. For this repetition, if for nothing else, The Big Kahuna succeeds, describing the world many of us inhabit in a provocative fashion and inspiring a new appreciation for the likes of Willy Loman. All rights reserved.