Glengarry Glen Ross, has to be one of the best films ever made in my opinion!
Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie that if you have ever worked in any kind of sales environment will strike a significant chord with you.
Originally a stage play written by David Mamet, who also wrote the screenplay it is a an examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
The movie stars Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, and Jonathan Pryce:
Jack Lemmon, ‘the machine’ Levene, is the old hero, now on a steady and sharp decline, who is perfectly cast as the time served salesman, who is undergoing a slump at a time when he least needs it.
Along with with Alec Baldwin as Blake, the hard nosed sales director, who is menacing and yet incredibly realistic, who appears in my opinion, in the greatest performance of his career, only taking up few minutes of screen time, he tears the screen to pieces and sets the movie alight up with one of the most incendiary, provocative, foul-mouthed, speeches ever, which I know for a fact is meat and drink to sales people around the planet!
Whilst this movie contains no car chases extreme violence or murders it does contain, absolutely the most powerful acting I have ever seen Jack Lemmon in one of his last movies is absolutely superb, as is the entire cast.
Set in a real estate office the politics and dynamics of a team of salespeople, lead by Al Pacino who in this movie is almost a parody of himself, with a constant undercurrent of menace and passion and yet with an appreciation of the peoples needs.
The theme basically revolves around the needs of individual sales people to achieve target, and they all are desperate for the commsion they will receive, all with a host of personal and intimate issues which impact on their abilty to deliver.
The title Glengarry Glen Ross the name of a new develpment and each sales person is desperate to acquire the all important sales leads, however they
Tinged with pathos you can tell it was originally a stage play but the transfer to the big screen really does work well, I read that some people consider it a boring movie, however if you can identify with real credible stories that do not rely on big bangs and car chases to entertain their audience then I amconvinced you will enjoy this movie.
Glengarry Glen Ross takes place in one evening and the next morning, and is mostly in a dingy office and a Chinese restaurant.
