Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) is airing tonight on TCM. I’ll tape it — then watch it later.
GGR is one of those special-treat movies where I always full-stop and record and watch at least once every couple of years. Like many of you reading, I too have a few dozen movies in that special category of guilty treats. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen them before, I’ll watch one of these movies again. Even though most of the dialogue was committed to memory long ago, I still get something out of a repeat viewing every time. Don’t ask me why, I can’t explain.
Written by the great David Mamet, and based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play, GGR exposes the American Dream stripped down to naked desperation. As with so many great books / plays / movies, many different interpretations have been debated of GGR, all with their own justifications. Whether intentional or not, I perceive GGR as the bare-knuckle takedown of unbridled free-market capitalism, exposing our economic system and the consequent social pecking order not just as a jungle where everyone’s both predator and prey, but also a giant con game. Top salesman wins a Cadillac. Everyone else still stuck in the dreary office at the end of the carnage gets to wrestle over the set of steak knives. Other interpretations have focused on GGR’s portraiture of toxic masculinity, where the Darwinian hierarchy is determined by ruthlessness and accumulation. The costs are always suffered by the defeated. Forget about teaching Adam Smith. Just show Glengarry Glen Ross in economics classes.
GGR includes an all-male cast. Perhaps this hurt the film’s box office draw. Still, this might be as fine an acting ensemble as we’ve seen onscreen in the past 40 years. It helps that each character is blessed with astounding dialogue from which our own reflections are harvested in the word and upon the faces of those battling for survival. From the audience’s viewpoint, we’ve all been on the other side of these scavengers. Some of us have even worked within them, and been them. All fishermen ultimately turn into bait.
I first saw GGR when it was released in movie theaters. Incredibly, it bombed financially. The movie didn’t even make back its original production costs. At the time, it did seem rather dark and often depressing. Watching in a near-empty movie theater seemed as dreadful as sitting through a timeshare sales pitch. It took a few more viewings for me to fully comprehend just how hilarious this film is (which is the only way to approach the subject matter–which is a healthy dose of cynicism), and ultimately how much of a revelation of ourselves collectively speaking we are witnessing onscreen.
I made the mistake of also seeing a stage play of GGR in Washington. Unfortunately, I saw this in the late 90s, and I was already immersed in the film’s characters. Upstaged by the best portrayals you’ll see, the live actors couldn’t possibly compete nor compare. Most interesting, the stage play did not (nor does it) include the most famous scene in the movie, which is Alec Baldwin’s ball-busting “motivation” speech to the sales force. That was specifically written for Baldwin by Mamet and included in the final release. It’s brutal. It’s classic. It’s hysterical. (click HERE)
Every cast member is spot-on perfect. The understated roles are just as impressive, and in some ways superior to the grandiose more theatrical scenes many are familiar with. It’s a movie packed with excellent monologues, and the interplay between actors becomes musical cadence. Note: One of the most important though least-understood aspects of comedy is timing. Timing is everything.
I also must point to Jack Lemmon’s acting in this film, which is as good if not better than anything he did (and Lemmon was a remarkable actor, with a number of memorable roles). This might have been his best, yet he wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar. Lemmon’s shady salesman character is all things — funny, sad, pitiful, and mesmerizing. Lemmon’s facial gyrations just in reaction to other characters who are speaking is a master-class in acting.
The stellar cast includes — Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and Jonathan Pryce.
I assume most readers have already seen this movie, or at least know this famous scene. If somehow you missed it, a viewing is definitely recommended and overdue.
Never has such a dark and depressing movie about a subject so uninteresting (real estate sales) been so poignant and so funny.