Movie Memories: Glengarry Glen Ross

A couple of Saturdays ago, I had a long conversation with one of my relatives who now lives in Texas. One of the many topics we discussed was a film that we have both seen numerous times... the 1992 classic about desperate real estate salesman, "Glengarry Glen Ross". The title refers to Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms, two of the real estate properties mentioned in the movie.

The movie (adapted from an award-winning play by David Mamet) features one of the best ensembles ever: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, etc. In case you haven't seen it, "Glengarry Glen Ross" tells the story of a group of a real estate agency that deals in selling undesirable property. Spacey plays the office manager and Lemmon, Pacino, Harris, and Arkin are the four real estate salesman. Of the 4, only Pacino's character (Ricky Roma) is a "closer" (aka a successful salesman).

As a "motivational" tool, the corporate office asks a top salesman named Blake (Alec Baldwin) to go down to the office to fire up the 3 struggling salesmen. During his speech, Blake announces a sales contest. First prize is a brand new Cadillac... hey now! Second prize is a set of steak knives... damn, that's a big drop off from first prize! Third prize is termination... yikes! Blake also brings with him the Glengarry leads (the names of potential real estate buyers). These leads are like gold to the salesman. As a result, they resort to bribery, flattery, theft, etc. to try and get them.

It's hard to pick out the best performance in the movie because they were all superb. However, my vote goes to Jack Lemmon. I think he gave the performance of his career in "Glengarry" which is saying a lot when you stop to consider that he also was excellent in such films as "Days of Wine and Roses", "The Prisoner of Second Avenue", "The China Syndrome", and "Mister Roberts". As Shelly "The Machine" Levene, a once top salesman who is now struggling big time, Lemmon gives us the patented nervous everyman which was his stock and trade... but adds a bit of an edge to his character.

I also have to mention Al Pacino's performance as Ricky Roma, the top salesman in the office. For his work, he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor Oscar (the same year he won the Best Actor Oscar for Scent of A Woman). If you ask me, his performance in Glengarry was better than the one in Scent of A Woman. I think that Denzel Washington should have won the Best Actor Oscar that year for Malcolm X, but I digress.

Along with the performances, "Glengarry Glen Ross" is notable for its outstanding, profanity-laden script (penned by David Mamet). Nobody writes dialogue like this guy! If you are familiar with his work, you know exactly what I am talking about. It's hard for me to describe, but the characters in his plays/movies have a certain way of talking. As I mentioned, the script is filled with profanity so if you are offended by salty dialogue, it's best if you watch the film on broadcast TV (according to Wikipedia, the word "fuck" is used 138 times and "shit" is uttered 50 times). Can you imagine if somebody played a "Glengarry Glen Ross" drinking game in which they had to imbibe whenever somebody said "fuck" or "shit"? They'd be drunk in the first half hour!

Below are a couple of clips that I hope you enjoy. Be forewarned: both clips are filled with profanity. The first is the classic "Coffee Is For Closers" scene from "Glengarry Glen Ross". This is the only scene that features Alec Baldwin. Although Baldwin's screen time is minimal, he makes the most of it!



The 2nd clip is a "Glengarry Glen Ross" multiple choice quiz. The question is, which character has the highest obscenity count? Whoever put this piece together did an awesome job!