Review: Glengarry Glenross

A good script is a rare thing in Hollywood these days. A good script with excellent dialogue is even rarer. And a good script with excellent dialogue, no explosions, no CGI and a studio greenlight for wide release is rarer than a purple unicorn frolicking in a valley filled with women who hold a high opinion of me.  So when one actually threads the Hollywood eye of the needle and is released for our viewing pleasure, it has the potential to become a classic. Glengarry Glenross was released in 1992 when I was eight years old and just figuring out that "smoking grass" didn't mean going out to the front yard and lighting blades of grass on fire. Yes...yes that is a true story. Glengarry became one of those movies that I knew I should see yet I just never found the time to watch it. I knew it featured a guy's guy cast of Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin. To be fair the movie was originally a play written by David Mamet. There are really only six scenes in the movie that take place in three different locations. With scenes that last this long it's imperative to develop a story and dialogue that will keep the audience entertained. The story centers around four land salesmen who are given an ultimatum at the outset of the movie: Whoever sells the least amount by the end of the month is fired. With their jobs on the line these four men (whose morals are already suspect) sink even further into an unscrupulous abyss. And it's fascinating watching them slowly circle the drain. The dialogue is expertly written and performed which is especially important because with no special effects or action of any kind it's the only thing keeping the audience in the story. I'm a fan of overlapping dialogue by actors talented enough to pull it off (i.e. Good Night and Good Luck) and this movie could write a textbook on how it can be used effectively.

If there is one possible flaw in this movie, it's the one potential landmine that every Al Pacino movie must try to navigate. There will be those who say that Pacino chews the scenery and overacts here (as many say he does in every role since The Godfather). I personally find it more entertaining when Pacino is over the top and borderline psychotic. He and Jack Lemmon hold the movie together respectively as the major mover and shaker salesman of the company and a salesman who is past his prime but refusing to accept it. This would be a great movie on its own but when you couple in the fact that this includes one if not the greatest insult laden speech by a scene-stealing Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glenross is propelled into the upper echelon of movies that is still being discussed almost twenty years later by an untalented 25 year old writer. Seriously though, the Baldwin speech is everything that I wish I could be as a boss but alas I will never have cajones that big. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed is the only other role I can think of in which a character had so many classic one-liners in so little screen time. Out of a total of 5 I would buy Glengarry Glenross 5 gin and tonics at the local bar. Then I'd even let Pacino try to sell me some real estate.