Glengarry Glen Ross ««««
R, 100m. 1992
Cast & Credits: Al Pacino (Ricky Roma), Jack Lemmon (Shelly Levine), Ed Harris (Dave Moss), Alan Arkin (George Arronow), Kevin Spacey (John Williamson), Jonathan Pryce (James Lingk), Alec Baldwin (Blake). Screenplay by David Mamet. Directed by James Foley.
The key to being a successful real estate agent in “Glengarry Glen Ross” depends on “The Leads” the boss hands out daily to his sales agents. “The Leads” the characters often refer to throughout the film are lists of potential clients who may be interested in purchasing some land. Not everyone, we find out, is a legitimate buyer. Some of them just “like talking to salesmen.”
Working in real estate is much like playing a round of poker or blackjack. You handle the cards you have been dealt. If you cannot coerce someone to buy some cheap land by day’s end, you may as well grab your belongings, clear out your desk and never show your face around the workplace again.
The sales contests held in “Glengarry Glen Ross” are no more different from the monotonous and sometimes upsetting world of retail and suggestive selling.
When I started years ago in what used to be the fun, exciting world of video rentals and sales, the company held contests to see which store could sell the most copies of a certain title.
The store’s employees were given almost the same pep talk the chief corporate executive (Alec Baldwin) of Premiere Realtors gives to his staff in the film.
Baldwin’s scene stealing performance as the threatening corporate big wig comes off sounding like a drill sergeant addressing his new recruits on the first day of boot camp.
The difference with us is the talk was not as brutal and degrading. The message from the store manager was plain and simple. “If you do not suggestively sell something, you will be written up. Do it again and you’re fired.”
For the salesmen of Premiere Realtors, management’s saying is “Always be closing.”
“If you want to work here, close,” Baldwin warns.
What makes “Glengarry Glen Ross” so engrossing to watch is the characters exhibit the same traits either I, or others, may have encountered while working for a major retailer. The salesmen suffer a wide range of job-related ailments from excessive burnout and doubts about the industry to becoming greedy and just plain desperate.
Every character has a weak spot. Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) is a fast-talking, foul-mouthed, businessman who conducts most of his deals in a Chinese restaurant across the street from where he and his fellow sales agents work. Roma is good at getting people he just met, like the timid, soft-spoken Jonathan Pryce, drunk enough to write out a $6,000 check for an impressive piece of resort land in Florida.
Roma likes to hear how his co-workers closed a major deal and dispels negative feelings they have about themselves but isn’t a company man. Roma does only what he has to do to eat and pay the bills; even though he is the first in line to win the new Cadillac in the company sales contest.
Roma’s success are what make old-timers like Dave Moss (Ed Harris) mad enough to turn traitor and work for a rival realtor. Moss will not quit, however, until he has filled his co-workers like weak-minded George (Alan Arkin) with thoughts of criminal activity.
Finally, there is Shelly Levine (Jack Lemmon in an Oscar nominated performance), a pathetic excuse of a realtor whose middle age and paunch suggest this guy should have gotten out of the real estate business a long time ago.
“Glengarry Glen Ross” first appeared as a play in England in 1983 and made its debut in the United States the following year. I never saw the play, but I’ve read the script, which is almost identical to the film. The movie version works as an exploration into all these individual’s personalities, especially Lemmon’s and Pacino’s characters.
Both Roma and Levine are portrayed almost as equals. They are eager to get their clients interested in buying land. Both must contend with their callous, by-the-book, by-the-numbers boss (Kevin Spacey), who it seems has never gone out to sell a piece of real estate a day in his life.
Levine reminisces about the old days and makes most of his calls on a pay phone, barking orders in mid-conversation to his imaginary secretary like a rich successful businessman. I had no doubt his sales pitches worked on perspective clients years ago when he first started out. Those tactics, however, don’t work in today’s real estate business of the 1990s. Levine is a member of the old school.
The script, written by writer and film director David Mamet, is an intelligent and thought-provoking screenplay. Although most of the action takes place in a sales office, the crisp, inventive dialogue the characters spoke made me imagine certain situations they had been in before.
Watching “Glengarry Glen Ross” is like being glued to a good book in which the clever writing allows one to visualize the action unfolding.
That’s what this movie is.
©10/3/92
Cast & Credits: Al Pacino (Ricky Roma), Jack Lemmon (Shelly Levine), Ed Harris (Dave Moss), Alan Arkin (George Arronow), Kevin Spacey (John Williamson), Jonathan Pryce (James Lingk), Alec Baldwin (Blake). Screenplay by David Mamet. Directed by James Foley.
Working in real estate is much like playing a round of poker or blackjack. You handle the cards you have been dealt. If you cannot coerce someone to buy some cheap land by day’s end, you may as well grab your belongings, clear out your desk and never show your face around the workplace again.
The sales contests held in “Glengarry Glen Ross” are no more different from the monotonous and sometimes upsetting world of retail and suggestive selling.
When I started years ago in what used to be the fun, exciting world of video rentals and sales, the company held contests to see which store could sell the most copies of a certain title.
The store’s employees were given almost the same pep talk the chief corporate executive (Alec Baldwin) of Premiere Realtors gives to his staff in the film.
Baldwin’s scene stealing performance as the threatening corporate big wig comes off sounding like a drill sergeant addressing his new recruits on the first day of boot camp.
The difference with us is the talk was not as brutal and degrading. The message from the store manager was plain and simple. “If you do not suggestively sell something, you will be written up. Do it again and you’re fired.”
For the salesmen of Premiere Realtors, management’s saying is “Always be closing.”
“If you want to work here, close,” Baldwin warns.
What makes “Glengarry Glen Ross” so engrossing to watch is the characters exhibit the same traits either I, or others, may have encountered while working for a major retailer. The salesmen suffer a wide range of job-related ailments from excessive burnout and doubts about the industry to becoming greedy and just plain desperate.
Every character has a weak spot. Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) is a fast-talking, foul-mouthed, businessman who conducts most of his deals in a Chinese restaurant across the street from where he and his fellow sales agents work. Roma is good at getting people he just met, like the timid, soft-spoken Jonathan Pryce, drunk enough to write out a $6,000 check for an impressive piece of resort land in Florida.
Roma likes to hear how his co-workers closed a major deal and dispels negative feelings they have about themselves but isn’t a company man. Roma does only what he has to do to eat and pay the bills; even though he is the first in line to win the new Cadillac in the company sales contest.
Roma’s success are what make old-timers like Dave Moss (Ed Harris) mad enough to turn traitor and work for a rival realtor. Moss will not quit, however, until he has filled his co-workers like weak-minded George (Alan Arkin) with thoughts of criminal activity.
Finally, there is Shelly Levine (Jack Lemmon in an Oscar nominated performance), a pathetic excuse of a realtor whose middle age and paunch suggest this guy should have gotten out of the real estate business a long time ago.
“Glengarry Glen Ross” first appeared as a play in England in 1983 and made its debut in the United States the following year. I never saw the play, but I’ve read the script, which is almost identical to the film. The movie version works as an exploration into all these individual’s personalities, especially Lemmon’s and Pacino’s characters.
Both Roma and Levine are portrayed almost as equals. They are eager to get their clients interested in buying land. Both must contend with their callous, by-the-book, by-the-numbers boss (Kevin Spacey), who it seems has never gone out to sell a piece of real estate a day in his life.
Levine reminisces about the old days and makes most of his calls on a pay phone, barking orders in mid-conversation to his imaginary secretary like a rich successful businessman. I had no doubt his sales pitches worked on perspective clients years ago when he first started out. Those tactics, however, don’t work in today’s real estate business of the 1990s. Levine is a member of the old school.
The script, written by writer and film director David Mamet, is an intelligent and thought-provoking screenplay. Although most of the action takes place in a sales office, the crisp, inventive dialogue the characters spoke made me imagine certain situations they had been in before.
Watching “Glengarry Glen Ross” is like being glued to a good book in which the clever writing allows one to visualize the action unfolding.
That’s what this movie is.
©10/3/92
No comments:
Post a Comment