Written by: PBF
Glengarry Glen Ross is quite brilliant. David Mamet (screenwriter, the film is adapted from his play) loves dialogue, and if an actor cannot handle it, it’s very easy to tell. There is no issue of that in this film. Everyone in this film execute his words perfectly.
Basically, the film is the story of four real estate salesmen who work for Premiere Properties (played by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin and Ed Harris). The owners of the company ask Blake (Alec Baldwin) to come in and “motivate” the salesmen. He explains that the top seller for the month will win a new Cadillac, the second place salesman will win steak knives and everyone else will be fired. He gives a quite HR inappropriate, vulgar, insulting and yet entertaining speech which scares and pisses everyone off except Roma, (played by Pacino) who is not required to attend the meeting, as he is top salesman. Blake shows the salesmen the Glengarry leads, which are “gold.” Levine (Lemmon), whose character is the inspiration for the Simpsons character Gil Gunderson, begs Williamson, the office manager (Kevin Spacey) to give him one of those leads, as the salesman are of the opinion that the current leads are weak and they cannot close them. The film depicts 2 days in the life of this office; the night of the meeting and the following day in which it is discovered that the office has been broken in to and the leads have been stolen. What results is an awesome character study, and highly satisfying film.
David Mamet has a very firm grasphold of the way people actually talk. This is prominent in pretty much all of his films and plays. That being said, and as I mentioned before, if an actor cannot deliver this dialogue very well, they will stand out like a sore thumb in a Mamet piece. Once again, this is not a problem in Glengarry Glen Ross. Every single actor, not matter what the size of the role, deliver Mamet’s lines with excellence, and firm believability. Alan Arkin is especially great. He seems to have the same masterful understanding of the English language as Mamet does, and his performance seems like it was rudimentary to him.
What’s most impressive about this film, is that Mamet can take the same talent that makes his plays so engaging (strong dialogue) and apply it in to a film. A lot of film goers prefer some kind of “eye candy,” whether it is an explosion, or Vin Diesel. Mamet films will almost never deliver that.
The casual movie goer does not understand the “mechanics” of film. They do not isolate line delivery, blocking, or the tightness of an ensemble cast. They just see flashiness. If you are one of those people, you will hate this film. It is a showcase of superb acting, directing and writing. Yet, it does not insist upon itself. It just exists, waiting for appreciation, which it very much deserves. It’s highly quotable, and simply watching this (or reading Mamet in general) makes a writer suddenly want to write something fantastic. Awesome picture.
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