Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / December 5, 2014

You know what it takes to sell real estate?

Glengarry Glen Ross, despite its grim subject matter, is one of my favourite films. Based on David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, it intelligently dissects the life of the salesman in more ways than one, a bit like how The Sopranos dissected mob life. All the weirder then that Glengarry Glen Ross has actually been used to train salesmen. That’d be like if mobsters turned to The Sopranos for advice on how to succeed at mob life. I suppose it speaks favorable of the film’s portrayal of a salesman’s life, but the point of Glen Ross is not to serve as a training video.

            Glen Ross deals with the lives of a handful of real estate salesmen. All of them except for the highly successful Roma (Al Pacino) are struggling with lousy leads. One rainy night they’re called to the office where they receive some troubling news: the higher-ups have created a contest: whoever earns the most money will get a brand-new Cadillac; second prize is a set of steak knives (aka you’re fired); third prize is you’re fired (aka you’re fired). Not exactly a comforting prospect for the salesmen. Burdened with the prospect of losing their jobs, each salesman tries to make the best out of the situation the only way they can: by lying, scheming, robbing, manipulating and any combination thereof. When the office is robbed, the police arrive the following morning to interrogate each salesman privately.

From a ‘realistic’ standpoint, the script feels ‘artificial’ in a Paddy Chayefsky’s Network kind of way…and that’s a good thing. As Roma says at one point, “anyone in this office lives on his wits.” Everything they say means something. Double meanings and subtext abound. These people aren’t here to casually talk to one another, but to make money. This involves selling not just a product, but an illusion as seen when Roma rambles philosophically to a potential client before revealing a piece of land he could purchase. Language plays a pivotal role in the lives of these men and director James Foley ensures the film’s editing emphasizes the flow of the dialogue. The script is indeed one of the best parts and screenwriter Mamet actually added parts, like Baldwin’s diabolical monologue on the sales contest and how much the salesmen (except the absent Roma) suck at their jobs.

            The ensemble assembled here is one of the best ever: Pacino, Lemmon, Spacey, Harris, Arkin, Pryce and Baldwin are all present and accounted for. But rather than letting too many familiar faces ruin the immersion, this is a case where it all fits (which just makes it more puzzling why Glen Ross wasn’t a financial success upon release.)

            One of the film’s biggest successes is that its indictment of the life of salesmen doesn’t up the drama to such a degree that the film becomes unwatchable. Rather, the script and the acting are highly enjoyable and engaging which makes the fact that you’re basically watching all the salesmen (except Roma) struggle to put food on their table easier to swallow. A must watch.