Glengarry Glen Ross | | Cast : | Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino | | Director : | James Foley | | Studio : | Lions Gate Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Box set, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound | | Released Date : | January 01, 1992 | | DVD Released Date : | February 17, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Glengarry Glenn Ross with classic one-liners | Content
 | Most probally know that this movie started out as a play. It is apparent with the abundance of dialogue. Al Pacino is such a great character in this movie and Alec Baldwin cleary steals the movie in one scene. His classic lines are quoted amongst sales professionals throughout the world.
ABC baby! Great movie, ending kind of stinks. Its too abrupt, but the Alec Baldwin scene is worth the price of admission on its own. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 17, 2005 | | Summary | Excellent acting and script, cussing is poetry | Content
| The other day I was discussing salespeople with a friend and we determined that nobody likes being sold anything. Coincidental, then, that I saw Glengarry Glen Ross that night, as the film seems to support our hypothesis, but it adds another dimension to it: the salespeople themselves may not necessarily even like selling anything. In fact, the men in this movie are selling for survival; if they don't sell, they don't eat.
Near the beginning of the film, a man from the downtown office (Alec Baldwin) offers encouragement to three salesmen who aren't meeting their quotas by way of verbal abuse. First prize is a brand new Cadillac, second prize is a set of steak knives, and third prize is the door: you're fired. The men are selling real estate, using the weak leads handed down to them from above. There is Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), nicknamed The Machine for his past sales record, who has hit a wall in his career and can't seem to close any more sales. He desperately needs to keep his job to pay medical bills for his wife. Dave Moss (Ed Harris) is fed up with all of the bureaucracy, and doesn't feel people should be treated this way--and they shouldn't. George Aaronow (Alan Arkin) isn't the sharpest tool in the drawer, and tends to be swayed by his colleagues.
All three of these men are jealous of the only guy making any sales lately, Ricky Roma (Al Pacino). Dave is convinced that the rest of them would be doing just as well if they were getting the good leads that he is, but according to their by-the-book company-pleasing manager John Williamson (Kevin Spacey), only closers are worthy of the good leads--the Glengarry leads. Dave comes up with a plan to break into the office, steal the leads, and sell them to the competitor across the street, and tries to convince George to do the dirty work, and as a reward, he can take a cut of the pay and have a job with the competitor. We don't see the actual robbery, though--only the aftermath--and it's not clear who exactly did what. Everyone's got their motives, but who had the guts to do it?
Glengarry Glen Ross was written by David Mamet based on his stage play of the same name, and it must have been an actor's paradise. There are no special effects, hardly any sets at all, and some fantastic dialogue, which flows with the cadence that only Mamet can produce. Nobody else can write profanity with such poetry. Director James Foley doesn't intrude on his actors, which is the perfect way to deal with this talk-heavy picture. The acting is excellent all around, especially by screen legend Jack Lemmon, though nobody is overshadowed by anybody else.
The only fault I found with the film was the abrupt ending, but to go into any more detail would be a crime against anybody who hasn't seen the film. The subject matter is fascinating, as most of us have only seen salesmen when they're being phonies. Here they are given personalities, and are struggling with not only their jobs, but with their lives, and they live in such a sheltered world that they can't even see the opportunities that might be available outside of this bubble. It's a really foolish idea to steal from the place you have to go to every day, but if you don't know any better, it makes perfect sense. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 10, 2005 | | Summary | 2nd prize: a set of steak knives. 3rd prize: your fired! | Content
| "The man from downtown" comes and informs the sales staff "we're adding something special to this month's sales promotion. First prize, a cadillac convertable. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired!
The pressure is on--how far would _you_ go to preserve your job?
This movie is based on a play which is a riviting, penetrating study of the Male psychie as expressed in the workplace. Men are front and center--they are working, drinking, schmoozing--and selling. The part women figure in this play only by the impact they have on the men--the sick daughter, the wife who answered the wrong sales ad. Your manhood is directly proportional to your sales volume, so A.B.C. -- Always Be Closing!
How ironic then is the line Al Pacino delivers towards the end of the movie: "We're not living in a world of men. We're living in a world of clock-watchers and office holders."
This is one of those movies you can watch over and over, savoring the dialog and marveling over the excellent performances. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 06, 2005 | | Summary | Great flick - awesome performances | Content
| Okay, as others have said, this is a great flick, and a stunning cast. But I'm not sure there's any such thing as an "actor's movie" as others have said - these guys would be sitting around with nothing to do if not for Mamet's trademark staccato dialogue.
Speaking of which, IMDB notes that the word f*ck and its derivatives are uttered 138 times in the course of this movie... so much, in fact, that during filming the actors referred to the movie as "Death of a F*cking Salesman."
Jack Lemmon was a great actor who tended to get a little over the top at the end of the film - and he doesn't disappoint here, if that's what you're looking for. And Pacino LIVES over the top - this is another one of those films where he treats his performance as if it's a great big freakin' joke, just between him and his audience. But for my money, the standout performance in this film is Kevin Spacey's. His performance is as tightly controlled - perhaps claustrophobic is a better word - in this as in "American Beauty."
Folks who like this movie should check out two of Mamet's best: The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy (an early 20th century play Mamet adapted for the screen, and directed). |
| Rating | | | Date | April 14, 2005 | | Summary | Credible, riveting condemnation of the yuppie era. | Content
| Glengarry Glenross istantly reminded me of Miller's Death Of A Salesman (for obvious reasons), the comparisons between the Shelley character and Willy Loman are particularly striking.
Glengarry Glenross is more of a snapshot than a composition, there is no engineered changing of mood or pace which would suit most dramas, it ends in a similiar way as it begins and this creates extraordinary realism which is very powerful. The characters are brilliant, the cast exists as one of the finest collection of actors you are ever likely to see in a movie, period. I'm not sure who's performance was best, Lemmon is scintillating as the insecure ageing salesman who's morals are being challenged by economic hardship. Spacey is at his very best as the harried and despised manager at the firm. Pacino probably just steals the show as the firms most successful salesman, the way he manipulates the timid client gives a hint into his dark side, his character is able to bypass any moral questions easily.
It is interesting to think about the film in terms of chronology, Lemon's character was 'once' a succesful salesman but no longer, he is surely what Pacino's character (currently successful) will one day be, Spacey's character only tolerates Pacino's verbal abuse because of Pacino's current success..'you fairy you', in a few years he will get his revenge as he does with Lemmon's character. Meanwhile Pacino's otherwise rough-edged character is strangely gentle and indulgent with Shelley, perhaps he also sees himself in Shelley, twenty years older. The firm itself is a hot stew boiling over, there is constant pressure to perform constantly, and you are only as good as your last deal, is this turning them all into desperate crooks with no moral compass? The constant bickering between the characters betrays their unhappiness, the break-in at the firm betrays their moral decline, one character only (Pacino) seems to be thriving in the pressure cooker atmosphere and then only because of his amorality, the rest of them are unproductive unhappy employees. At one point in the movie an employee complains about how past mismanagement in the company has led to their current unprofitable situation epitomised by his clever line "you dont sell a man one car, you sell him 5 over fifteen years" - ie you dont screw your customer or he wont come back. The ultra-capitalist do-or-die attitude of their bosses is clearly failing on the business side of things as much as it is failing the employees, on a human level.
Best Line
"they're insane, they just like talking...to salesmen." |
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