Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: James Foley

Starring: An incredible cast, including Alan Arkin (RIP)

From: New Line Cinema

RIP Alan Arkin. I haven’t seen too much of his work (and some I have was years before joining Letterboxd, such as was the case with this until last night) but that does not reflect what I thought of his acting talent. As this is on YouTube legally for free, it was time to close the deal and check this out for only the second time. Since that initial viewing about two decades ago, I’ve learned that writer David Mamet has questionable politics-not to mention, he as a director apparently is a fan of the “monotone style” I try to generally avoid as if it has COVID—not to mention the whole “Kevin Spacey is in this” thing.

Concerning the latter, this is an ensemble piece so he is not in every scene. As for another controversial figure-Alec Baldwin-his role is in essence a cameo seven minutes long as a figurative drill sergeant who yells at underperforming real estate agents in an office. To be frank, perhaps they SHOULD be yelled at due to all the bitchin’ they do about all the lousy leads they are supposedly given. As their job is literally on the line and they need better performance… what was it about “desperate times” and “desperate measures”? The title refers to the two groups of great leads for new developments, Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross.

Not surprisingly, all the vulgarities of a Mamet script doesn’t impress me like it used to. In any event, that did not ruin the experience here & bears no impact on my rating. A movie that stars Pacino, Spacey, Lemmon, Baldwin, Arkin, Ed Harris, AND Jonathan Pryce impresses on name & talent alone. All of them do deliver w/ their performances but it is this in conjunction with the story (based on a stage play) which will keep you enraptured even if the setting of real estate sales sounds like an incredibly square world full of men in conservative business suits who drink martinis at lunch. In actuality, “cutthroat” is an apt term to use for the world depicted here.

The obvious stage origins are forgotten due to incidents that escalate the tension and admittedly, the script might as well have been written in ALL CAPS, to steal a line from a mutual. As long as the real life exploits of several people involved in this production is not enough to turn you off, those that want to see an acerbic, acidic take on capitalism and its evils will be well-served to check this out. So should you if you are a fan of at least one of the actors presents and/or want to see a quality Arkin performance.