847. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Running Time: 100 minutes
Directed By: James Foley
Written By: David Mamet, from his play
Main Cast: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin

"ALWAYS BE CLOSING"

I didn't have quite enough time to kill last night that would have allotted me enough time to watch "La dolce vita", so instead I moseyed to my DVD shelf and plucked out an old favorite of mine, "Glengarry Glen Ross". And oh yeah, this is the 150th film I've watched for the "1001" book!

The film takes course over the course of a twenty-four hour period and we begin during a rainy night and a sales meeting for a group of real estate salesmen. It seems that the firm is having a new sales promotion: first place - you win a car, second place - you win a set of steak knives and third place - you're fired. The three men attending the meeting (Lemmon, Harris and Arkin) are given two "dead leads", or people who have no interest in buying land. The men can't close the deals on the dead leads which leads (no pun intended) to some talk being thrown around of robbing the office and getting a hold of the Glengarry leads, a list of genuine buyers. Meanwhile, Ricky Roma (Pacino) isn't sweating things too much, as the fourth man in the office, as his name sits prominently atop the leading sellers board. Act Two begins the following morning, the morning after the office has been robbed and all signs point to one of the salesmen as the perpetrator. Kevin Spacey plays the snarky office manager John Williamson.

This movie has two key elements that make it a must for the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", and that is dialogue and performances.

I don't care who you are or what kind of films you're interested in, if you watch this movie you're going to realize the hard work that ALL of these actors are putting forth. Even Alec Baldwin who shows up for about eight minutes and provides possibly the best eight minutes of acting of his career. A sixty-seven year old Jack Lemmon swooping in and proving that he's not done yet and seemingly saying "Hey, I can still hang with you boys!". Al Pacino giving an Oscar nominated performance as Ricky Roma, the insane salesman who provides probably about 50% of the profanity in a very profane film. Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin and Ed Harris turn in great performances too and damn what a fucking cast that is (sorry it just wouldn't be a Glengarry Glen Ross review without the "f" word).

The dialogue is stellar too and proves that Mamet knows what he's doing when he's pecking out a script. The speeches that these guys are given to deliver probably helps them to flex their acting muscle, especially Pacino who's given a lot of speeches in a very short time frame, during Act Two.

This is just a great movie and those are two very good reasons why. This has always been a personal favorite of mine and from the first time I saw it and even though I didn't fully understand it (I didn't used to know what the hell they were talking about when they said "leads") it's a film that has followed me for years and something that I'll throw in quite often, when I just want to have a good time with a movie. It's one that sucks you up into it's atmosphere and sits you front row to let you watch all the drama play out. Good actors, good performances, good dialogue...What more can I say?

RATING: 10/10 It usually takes me days (sometimes months) of reflection and multiple viewings to give a film a '10'...This one has followed that course.

MOVIES WATCHED: 150
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 851

September 23, 2010 2:04pm