This is definitely David Mamet’s best movie. The part he wrote for Alec Baldwin is nothing short of amazing. The whole cast is spot on: Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey…c’mon! Although Mamet is lauded for his dialouge, a lot of the time I actually think it is too contrived and “interesting” to be believable. But in Glengarry Glen Ross it is so right.
When is this coming on DVD? When? When? When?
In the three minutes or so that Alec Baldwin is on screen, he is amazingly good.
And Jack Lemmon, whom I never liked, was remarkable as Sheldon “the Machine” Levine. For most of the film, he’s a touching sad sack, but toward the end, when he thinks he’s finally made a big sale, you see a whole different side of him, and you get a glimpse of what an SOB he must have been when he was on top (and why Kevin Spacey’s character loathes him).
Like the OP, I often find Mamet’s work utterly unrealistic… but in “Glengarry,” everything works brilliantly.
How about when Pacino gives that little monologue about bile to I can’t remember who, but it’s one of the more impressive parts of the the movie.
Always
Be
Closing
I watched this movie with some friends about two weeks before I started a new career as a commercial realtor. They feared for my soul. I only lasted about two years. I didn’t dig it. The job that is…the movie was excellent.
i gota chime in as well. I abosulety adore this film, pure dialouge, pure passion, just a breath taking film. Lemmon’s pefromance nearly brought me to tears…god, what an freakin showcase of acting…amazing movie…just forkin brillinat…
Alec Baldwin stole the movie with that one scene.
I think it set a record for the most uses of the word ‘fuck’,
WHAT?
Just don’t watch it on a Sunday evening.
You may not be able to restrain yourself when you go into work the next morning!
Fans of this movie will appreciate these links:
http://www.salesrepswinner-net.com/leisure/lfilm02.html
There is or was a website that had pretty much almost the entire dialogue to the movie, but I can’t find it. Maybe it was taken down.
Patel? Patel?
A really great movie. I love Mamet’s stuff whenever I see it, but I agree that sometimes his dialogue is too mannered. (It’s closer to real speech than movies typically are, but it’s not quite there. Although movie speech isn’t generally as realistic, at least we’re used to hearing it.) But in this film you rarely have that problem. (At least in part because Al Pacino always talks like that anyway.)
–Cliffy
but I have a question that perhaps someone can answer:
What the hell were they selling? The way they behaved, it seemed as though they were doing something downright illegal, like selling air, or mere words on paper. Were they selling swampland?
Stoid- do you remember back in the 70s, when there used to be loads of TV commercials for land in the Southwest? The ads made the land sound like a great investment, or a wonderful place for a retirement home. The ads played on nostalgia for the old West.
So, lots of senior citizens (or just naive city folk who liked the romantic idea of living on the frontier) called up sleazy salesman and bought worthless desert land with idyllic-sounding names.
So, David Mamet’s play wasn’t far removed from reality. If his salesman (especially pacino) sometimes talk like poets, well, that’s because a salesman with a worthless product HAS to talk like a poet. He CAN’T sell the land as land, because the land itself is obviously worthless. No, he has to sell a DREAM!
Pacino’s mark (uh, I mean customer) is a neurotic, middle-aged, middle-class urban white male. He’s probably never done anything imaginative or exciting in his life. To him, the IDEA of buying a little piece of land and getting away from it all is appealing. And THAT’s how Pacino tries to make the sale- by selling lousy land packaged as a dream.
Jack Lemmon is brilliant. The scene where he is on the phone and bitching about the leads to his co-workers and then as soon as the customer answers he switches to smooth talker in an instant is just amazing. I think it is the greatest acting performance I have ever seen.
Alec Baldwin has some of the most memorable dialogue I have ever heard:
Pretty much. I think it was El Rancho Estates or Rio Rancho Properties or something like that.
I would probably not say what they were selling was illegal since Sully was there for years; the operation would probably have been shut down long ago. I would say they were selling legit lots in Florida, but on unbuildable swampland, to either build or more likely as property speculation.
The key was using high pressure tactics to get them to “sign on the line that is dotted.”
I really liked this movie, too, and I especially loved Baldwin’s scene. I work as a graphic artist, mostly doing newspaper advertising work, so I’ve had to deal (a little too much) with salespeople, enough to want to strangle a few of these wretches on more than one occasion. Watching Baldwin’s speech was amazingly cathartic.
I also loved this movie. However, I’ve only seen it once because I simply can’t handle watching it again. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but the end was just too much for me.
Jack Lemmon was amazing.