Review of Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) by Mark P — 14 Jul 2009

I have always been a huge David Mamet fan, I absolutely plotz over his language and the driving pace of his dialogue. There's magic when it's done correctly, with strong actors. Certainly, with a cast like this, "strong acting" isn't a problem.

As a pure piece, I'm always going to prefer the stage play, but Mamet wrote this screen adaptation himself. The scene adding Alec Baldwin's "man from downtown" is an amazing spotlight for an actor who sometimes get lost in the Shatner-like image he's developed. I couldn't help but wonder why it was there, as the play gets across the infromation just as well. It's a small quibble, and certainly the addition is written and performed amazingly.

I've had people over the years, mostly women, wonder in my presence what the point of this story is. I think it's fascinating that I hear this from women, mainly. I think this play, and film, are documenting a fall in the status of men in this country. For decade in this country, men were the breadwinners, the hunters who went out and worked to provide. A man's self-worth was directly connected to their JOB.

The play was first performed in 1983, at a time when the rising tide of consumer culture was sweeping the country.

Suddenly, there was a desire for EVERYONE to get rich. The means wasn't important, the ends was. The four men presented within this real estate office are presented as men with a craft, a skill that they value and feel is important. That skill is selling. That skill is no longer valued by those above them. They are running scams. They can sell a good product to a customer that wants it, but these men are denied both. They are all shown as capable salesmen, hobbled by the bureaucrats above. Williamson, the bureaucrat they directly work with, is explicitly shown as being without their skill.

The men are repeatedly told that they are valueless to their employer, and their ability to provide is threatened. Most explicitly with Levine, who has a daughter, sick in the hospital, who needs money for an operation.

It's Roma, the alpha-male current hotshot salesman, who says it best:

"I swear it's not a world of men it's not a world of men, Machine it's a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders what it is, it's a f*cked up world there's no adventure to it. (Pause.) Dying breed. Yes it is. (Pause.) We are the members of a dying breed.".