Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) – A group of struggling real estate salesmen get pushed to the wall when the central office sets up a contest that will cost the losers their jobs.

Directed by James Foley

Starring  – Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Price

Before you read another word, go back and look at that cast list.  That group of actors reading their shopping lists would be a hit movie.  When you hand them a David Mamet play about the seamy, underbelly of the commission sales world, what you get is a “buckle up and hang on” piece of brilliance.  Director Foley knows enough to simply stay out of the way.  Frame the actors and let them fly.

And oh how they fly!  If you are offended by foul language then you should not under any circumstances watch this movie.  The only other movie that comes to mind for such an avalanche of potty mouth would be “Boondock Saints”.  It’s constant and inescapable.

And absolutely vital.

The characters are the sales force for a real estate development company.  They need people to invest in their property.  Maybe it’s a good investment, maybe it isn’t.  What matters to them and their bosses is that the units get sold.  No matter how.  This is a cutthroat business where you do what you have to do.

Baldwin is brilliant as the corporate shark sent to kick some butt and fire some butts.  Lemmon is the former sales “machine” now in decline, replaced by Pacino’s cynical smoothie.  Harris is the grunt, the grinder who will never rise above that status if he stays inside even the flexible rules of this environment.  Spacey is the office manager, who is here to do his job.  And nothing else.  He doesn’t care who sits at the desk outside his office.  Arkin is a babe in the woods who has no idea what he should do.  Price plays a patsy investor with second thoughts.

I could write a book about this cast.  Not a huge box office success, the movie is one that sends its fans into paroxysms as they try to explain its greatness.

So let me help them out.  It’s brilliant

Rated R for language.

Why I Liked It –  A searing look at what men at the edge can be driven to do.

Why You Will Like It – The cast, the cast, the cast!

Rating – ***** Must See