{"id":956,"date":"2008-08-22T23:20:30","date_gmt":"2008-08-23T03:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=956"},"modified":"2022-10-14T17:19:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T21:19:24","slug":"glengarry-glen-ross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/glengarry-glen-ross\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of a BLEEPing salesman: James Foley’s Glengarry Glen Ross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For better or for worse, Glengarry Glen Ross<\/em> is very pointedly set in a world of men. I believe only one woman so much as appears onscreen, in the background of one single scene. It’s no accident, oversight, or deliberate act of Hollywood misogyny to banish women from this 24-hour slice of the lives of five bottom-rung salesmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glengarry Glen Ross<\/em> is full of grand, showboating performances from a dream cast of male master actors Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, and Jonathan Pryce. Baldwin very nearly steals the entire movie with a hilariously aggressive motivational monologue: “What’s my name? ‘Fuck you,’ that’s my name.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s all the more extraordinary that Pryce, sometimes guilty of outrageously affected accents and scenery-consumption himself, masterfully underplays his part as a shy, passive man who can barely speak, let alone assert himself against predator Ricky Roma (Pacino).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kevin
All together now: “What’s my name? …”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The screenplay by David Mamet<\/a>, expanded from his own stage play, set a high standard for gloriously poetic profanity not to be surpassed until David Milch’s series Deadwood<\/a><\/em>. Famous for his naturalistic dialog (every “um,” “uh,” and stutter is right there on the page; there is no<\/em> improvisation), Mamet is also a meticulous craftsman of mystery and suspense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is one plot detail that trips me up on each viewing: the morning after the sales office is robbed, Shelley Levene (Lemmon) brags about having pulled off an impressive sale of eight units of sketchy property. Roma’s ears prick up at his mention of the signing having been just that morning, obviously sensing something fishy about Levene’s claim. But the time of closure is not inconsistent with Levene’s story, nor is there any reason to suspect that Levene, whatever else he may be guilty of, falsified this particular sale in any way. Roma may simply be surprised that the lately taciturn and ineffectual salesman Levene could not have pulled off such a feat at such an unlikely time unless his spirits were buoyed somehow. Still, Roma demonstrates perhaps the film’s only act of kindness by being the only one to give the old master one last chance to swap victorious war stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For better or for worse, Glengarry Glen Ross is very pointedly set in a world of men. I believe only one woman so much as appears onscreen, in the background of one single scene. It’s no accident, oversight, or deliberate act of Hollywood misogyny to banish women from this 24-hour slice of the lives of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2],"tags":[1041,1044,1043,33,1045,1040,1042,913,253],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-stars","category-movies","tag-al-pacino","tag-alan-arkin","tag-alec-baldwin","tag-david-mamet","tag-ed-harris","tag-glengarry-glen-ross","tag-jack-lemmon","tag-jonathan-pryce","tag-kevin-spacey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/glengarry-glen-ross-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-fq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5700,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/motherless-brooklyn-is-a-civics-lesson-wrapped-in-an-actorly-exercise\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":0},"title":"Motherless Brooklyn is a civics lesson wrapped in an actorly exercise","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I understand the generally negative reception that Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn encountered, but I didn't dislike it for two very mundane reasons: 1. I happened to watch it in the middle of binging HBO's Perry Mason miniseries (with which it coincidentally happens to have a\u00a0great deal\u00a0in common), and frankly, Motherless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/motherless-brooklyn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/motherless-brooklyn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/motherless-brooklyn.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/motherless-brooklyn.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/motherless-brooklyn.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5887,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-house-of-yes-feels-stagebound\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":1},"title":"The House of Yes feels stagebound","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Theater and film, as media, differ in as many ways as they overlap. Just as with adapting a novel to a movie, there is no simple translation from one media to another -- a play takes place from a fixed vantage point, there is no editing, and no digital\/optical photographic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/main-menu\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parker Posey in The House of Yes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/house-of-yes.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1469,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/redbelt\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":2},"title":"Competition is Weakening in David Mamet’s Redbelt","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"February 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Redbelt is writer\/director David Mamet's ode to jiu-jitsu, of which he himself is reportedly a purple belt. Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a struggling black belt jiu-jitsu instructor, one of the few remaining practitioners of martial art in its authentic Japanese origins. The professional combat sport association MMA (Mixed Martial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/redbelt-ejiofor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/redbelt-ejiofor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/redbelt-ejiofor.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/redbelt-ejiofor.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/redbelt-ejiofor.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1949,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/homicide\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":3},"title":"What Did I Ever Do to You? David Mamet’s Homicide","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Detective Bobby Gold (Joe Mantegna) comes to see himself as torn between two discrete worlds in David Mamet's Homicide (1991). Only when maneuvered into a position in which he must choose, the duality unravels and he finds he is no one special and belongs nowhere in particular. Gold's partner Sullivan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joe Mantegna in Homicide","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/homicide-joe-mantegna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/homicide-joe-mantegna.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/homicide-joe-mantegna.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/homicide-joe-mantegna.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/homicide-joe-mantegna.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":732,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-commitments\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":4},"title":"The World’s Hardest Working Band, The Commitments","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Commitments remains a favorite, even some 17 years after first seeing it in the theater. I've owned the soundtrack since then, but for whatever reason, had not revisited one of my favorite films. But having recently seen and loved Once, costarring Commitments alum Glen Hansard, I was inspired to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Commitments","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/commitments-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1253,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/recount-dvd-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":956,"position":5},"title":"The plural of chad is chad in HBO’s Recount","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2008 HBO television movie Recount dramatizes the traumatic few weeks at the close of the 2000 Presidential election. That hectic time brings back three distinct feelings for this blogger: bewilderment at the founding fathers' purpose for the Electoral College (as everyone no doubt remembers, it was never in doubt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6392,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions\/6392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}