Recovered Classic: Glengarry Glen Ross


From the moment sales motivator Alec Baldwin lights the blue touchpaper in the barnstorming opening reel, it’s clear that this adaptation of David Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play about scamming real estate salesmen is going to be incendiary stuff. Mamet’s proficiency for verbal fireworks has been well documented on the big screen, but rarely has one of his scripts been set ablaze by such a dazzling cast on such mesmerizing form.

Inevitably, his screenplay makes for a wordy, dialogue-heavy movie, one which director James Foley keeps largely restricted to the confines of the salesmen’s dank office. But while action junkies may be well advised to give it a wide berth, purists will revel in the verbal pyrotechnics, the deft writing and the scorching performances which render insignificant any quibbles about the pacing or the narrow character focus.

Essentially, this is a detailed study of personal struggle and professional survival in the face of extreme intimidation, all of which is set in motion when Baldwin (who’s only in one scene) informs salesmen Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin that a new incentive competition is being launched to help swell the company’s dwindling coffers. First prize is a Cadillac, second is a set of steak knives. Third? The sack.

What follows is never less than riveting as the quartet of desperate employees (slaves to the slogan “Always be closing”) make frantic attempts to revive their flagging careers. But this is a hopeless task made virtually impossible by the fact that not only is their list of leads (potential customers) almost worthless, but nobody’s buying their useless plots anyway. Despised office manager Kevin Spacey does have a new list of hot leads locked away, but they’re for “closers”, so the heat is on. For some, the pressure proves too much, blind panic sets in and it’s not long before a plot is hatched to rob Spacey’s office and steal the new list in order to sell it to a rival real estate firm.
A deeply involving film which is played out almost exclusively in one office and the Chinese restaurant across the road (the street in-between occasionally gets a look-in), while this is strictly an ensemble piece, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s Lemmon and Pacino who have the meatier roles. They play contrasting characters (Lemmon the over-the-hill graduate of the old school, Pacino the go-getting, fast-talking, hotshot) but both excel as the electrifying narrative switches focus from one character to another. Which means the other principles are also given their opportunities to shine, Harris spitting venom with effortless aplomb and Arkin playing downtrodden to perfection.

As for Spacey, you never quite know what to make of his cold, outwardly unflappable character, especially as he’s the target of constant abuse from his understandably irate sales force. Stick with it though, because his true colours emerge in the final reel, when all the strands pull together to deliver one final telling punch.

By then, Mamet’s murky world of deceit and dishonesty has been completely laid bare. Rife with greed, arrogance and despair, which escalates as the salesmen battle to save their livelihoods, Foley keeps the atmosphere grim, the sets claustrophobic and plays out the action during the course of one miserable, rain-soaked day. The inherent desperation is personified by the excellent Lemmon, who has medical bills to pay for a sick daughter we never see and who’ll try anything to get his hands on the new leads, while Pacino is the one person with any hope, borne out of his complete lack of scruples.

Regarded by some as one of the finest dramas of the 1990s, while it could be described as something of an acquired taste, it’s undoubtedly a top drawer example of dynamite screenwriting brought to life by acting of the highest caliber.

David Lichtneker

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