FBMR - Glengarry Glen Ross

This has to be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Not depressing like I want to cry, but depressing because all of the characters are depressing losers. The four main characters (Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris) are real estate salesmen. They’re given dead leads and have to try to sell to people who don’t want to buy. The only one who seems to know what he’s doing in Pacino’s character. He plays his character big, as he does in most of his films, but it really works here. Some of the best lines are his when he’s ranting to office manager (Kevin Spacey).

One of the first scenes of the film has Alec Baldwin, playing an kind of twisted motivational speaker, telling the salesmen that they suck, and that only two of the four are going to have jobs at the end of the week, the two that make the most sales. “A, B, C,” he tells them, “Always be closing.” From that point on, the four salesmen try as hard as they can to close a deal, and spend a good deal of time complaining about what they have to do. The next day we find that the office has been broken into, and the new “gold” leads have been stolen.

Every single performance is superb. It really discourages anyone from going into the world of sales, unless you can lie your way and be extremely persuasive about it. David Mamet wrote the screenplay, based on his play, and it’s a great script with lots for the actors to work with. This film is an excellent character study, and an interesting whodunit. Follow it up with a comedy though.


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GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1993) ***1/2 This has to be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Not depressing like I want to cry, but depressing because all of the characters are depressing losers. The four main characters (Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris) are real estate salesmen. They’re given dead leads and have to try to sell to people who don’t want to buy. The only one who seems to know what he’s doing in Pacino’s character. He plays his character big, as he does in most of his films, but it really works here. Some of the best lines are his when he’s ranting to office manager (Kevin Spacey). One of the first scenes of the film has Alec Baldwin, playing an kind of twisted motivational speaker, telling the salesmen that they suck, and that only two of the four are going to have jobs at the end of the week, the two that make the most sales. “A, B, C,” he tells them, “Always be closing.” From that point on, the four salesmen try as hard as they can to close a deal, and spend a good deal of time complaining about what they have to do. The next day we find that the office has been broken into, and the new “gold” leads have been stolen. Every single performance is superb. It really discourages anyone from going into the world of sales, unless you can lie your way and be extremely persuasive about it. David Mamet wrote the screenplay, based on his play, and it’s a great script with lots for the actors to work with. This film is an excellent character study, and an interesting whodunit. Follow it up with a comedy though.