SXSW

Bulletproof Salesman

 (Documentary)

By JOE LEYDON

'Bulletproof Salesman'

A Pepper & Bones Films production. Produced, directed, written, edited by Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein.
 
With: Fidelis Cloer.
 

After focusing on post-Saddam Iraq via U.S. combat soldiers ("Gunner Palace") and brutalized civilians ("The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair"), documakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein turn their cameras on a German salesman who enters the war zone to make a killing by impeding the killing in "Bulletproof Salesman." Incisive, sharply observed and scrupulously nonjudgmental, their new pic (like "The Prisoner") is shot through with darkly amusing ironies that often cause the laughter to catch in your throat. Prior to homevid and niche-cable release, this doc could be modestly profitable in theatrical rotation.

Fidelis Cloer is that rare war profiteer -- one who could be described as a peddler of life rather than a merchant of death. Indeed, he politely but pointedly resists easy labeling; if he really is a "war profiteer," he asks the documakers, then couldn't the same be said of those who sell bandages and medicines to treat the wounded?

Cloer takes inordinate pride in selling the best and safest armored vehicles money can buy (not humvees or jeeps, but armored-plated luxury cars with bullet-resistant glass). He's just a businessman, he insists, and an apolitical one at that. "We do not create the demand," he says during a sales trip to strife-torn Afghanistan. "The demand is here."

Pic intros Cloer in Iraq shortly after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in spring 2003. The aggressively charismatic supersalesman is not at all discouraged to find, initially, little demand for his German-manufactured product.

As insurgents begin their campaign of terror with IEDs (improvised explosive devices), Cloer soon is swamped with orders from Iraqi government officials. International corporations employing manufacturing and security contractors also purchase cars, even though, Cloer notes, few companies want to buy the safest and most expensive vehicles for the people working for them.

"Bulletproof Salesman" follows Cloer through sales pitches and product demonstrations. Occasionally, he allows himself to be fired upon while at the wheel of an armored vehicle. As the insurgents perfect more powerful IEDs, Cloer's company must continually improve its cars to maintain a competitive edge -- and keep clients from getting killed. Unfortunately, Cloer matter-of-factly remarks, "People have to die to improve the product."

Although they eschew the comicbook-style graphics used so effectively in "The Prisoner," Tucker and Epperlein again deploy titles to emphasize or underscore key phrases in the pithy observations of interviewees -- "Chaos is opportunity," for example. The flourish gives some scenes a sense of immediacy, and others a dollop of black comedy. Other tech elements are fine.

Ultimately, Cloer comes across as unashamed and unsentimental, yet also ingratiating and enthusiastic. The filmmakers play fair, neither condemning nor romanticizing as they force the viewer to figure out how to respond to this personable yet hard-to-read fellow.

No matter how you feel about the Iraq War, you might find yourself thinking Cloer would make a fascinating dinner guest. On the other hand, you might also find yourself fearing that he'd somehow manage to talk you into buying a car.

The ambiguity is sustained throughout, as Cloer visits the site of a bus bombing in Afghanistan. As he studies the scene with cool-eyed professionalism, as though figuring how this bad news might boost sales, workers arrive to clear away the debris and wash away the blood. They, too, are just doing their jobs.

Camera (HD color), Tucker; sound, Chris Muller. Reviewed at SXSW Film Festival (competing), March 13, 2008. Running time: 70 MIN.