Glen Gary Glen Ross

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The 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross was directed by Charles Sprague, and is based upon

the play by David Mamet. A Pulitzer Prize winning drama that hosts a powerhouse of

excellent performing actors such as Jack Lemmon (Shelly Levene), Al Pacino (Richard

Roma), Ed Harris (Dave Moss), Alec Baldwin (Blake), Alan Arkin (George Aaronow),

and Kevin Spacey (John Williamson), just to name a few. Glengarry Glen Ross is about

four hungry salesmen, Levene, Roma, Moss, Aaronow, and their supervisor, Williamson,

who work together selling undesirable real estate at inflated prices. The bosses of the

company, Mitch and Murray, have declared a sort of sleazy sales contest in which, first

prize wins a Cadillac, second prize gets a set of steak knives, and finally third prize is

given to those incompetent ones with a simple, your fired! A chalkboard is used to keep

tally on everyone's sales, everyone is expected to sell plenty of leads whatever the cost

might be, and may the best man win. The practical sales maxim is to always be closing,

and that's just what Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross is all about, a sleazy world of real

estate where men are pitted against one another, emotions are disregarded, new leads are

gold, and time is running out.

The first scene of the film takes place at a Chinese restaurant, in which Shelly, "The

Machine" Levene, tries to convince Williamson to give him better sales leads, so that he

will have a higher chance at closing a sale. Levene plays a desperate character in this

scene and is clearly a man at the end of his rope. He sweats nervously, begs, threatens,

mentions his daughter, and finally bribes his supervisor without grasping Williamson's

slightest interest. Williamson gives in at one point, but only after money is mentioned.

Levene offers to give up twenty percent of his commissions, plus fifty dollars per lead,

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which satisfies Williamson, and the deal is on the table. Ironically, however, even when

the two have reached an agreement, Williamson backs down, insisting on having the cash

upfront, as if he might be getting screwed. Williamson is clearly playing mind games

with Levene, and we sense that despite his efficient business attitude, Williamson

actually wants to see Levene fail.

In the next scene, we find instant corruption, where we find Moss and Aaronow

discussing how unfair the company policies are. Instead of bending toward company

pressure, Moss decides to devise a plan to rob the office blind, and make off with the

prized leads, in hopes of selling them for easy money. He explains the heist to Aaronow,

and tries to convince him that they are in the same boat. Aaronow seems to be faring as

poorly as Moss, but his response is one of acceptance rather than desperation. Aaronow

being the comic character in this world of hungry men has to review his options, and then

decides to back down on the plan. Moss, in turn, becomes very angry, and blames

Aaronow for simply listening. If Aaronow doesn't rob the office, then Moss will have to

do it himself, and if he gets caught, we assume that he will tell the police that Aaronow

was his accomplice. I particularly like this scene, because Mamet illustrates that a

capitalistic system that thrives on competition, ultimately demands that colleagues

mistreat and exploit each other at every chance they get.

When it seemed that the leads were getting too hard to sell, we find the representative

of success, Roma, at a restaurant managing to sell a lead to Lingk. As usual, Roma is full

of himself, and seems to be mumbling on about nothing, although it is clear that Lingk is

interested in something that Roma is trying to sell. Roma's self-confidence and ability to

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hypnotize his clients with fancy talk and lies gives him just the edge he needs to

ultimately close the deal, and put him on top of the board, as far as numbers are

concerned. As Levene and the other characters exude failure, Roma continues to exude

success. What I find ironic about the first half of the film, is that we witness sales pitches