Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): FAIL. I lasted only half an hour. I watched it because I’d heard it was a contender for the most 'swearing'. My jaw dropped as I watched the cast names cross in the opening credits: those guys … in the same movie?! It quickly closed again when we got to 'from the play by David Mamet'. And that sums it up: like all those David Williamson movies, it’s still a play. But, in addition, some director I’ve never heard of has managed somehow to make some of the best screen actors in the world look and sound dumb and boring. And the whole shemozzle is … depressing.
The good thing about this film is that the script gets the credit for once. (I watched it again - all of it this time.) It’s thought of as David Mamet’s film, not James Foley’s. Nor is the acting necessarily highly regarded, despite the depth of its remarkable cast. But, although the screenplay is prolly still better than 90% of others written since then, I’m starting to feel Mamet is a bit over-rated. Just saying.
Garry Gillard | New: 6 March, 2017 | Now: 10 August, 2018