Finally — and I know I’m years too late to the party — I caught Glengarry Glen Ross last night.
The real star? The dialog. David Mamet’s Touretteslike stream of obscenity-laced iambic pentameter has a mesmerizing rhythm, taking on a life of its own. I can only imagine how cool this must have been on stage, with a cast that had been doing it every night for a year.
The all-star cast includes Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey, as well as Alec Baldwin in one of the best cameo appearances in movie history. The clip above is the setup, a couple of minutes into it. The rest of the movie takes place that night and the next day, as the salesmen’s desperation takes them to some pretty grim places.
The dialog, I’ve got to say, is too much for a few of these guys, despite their skill. Which is why I wish I could have seen a well-broken in stage performance. You know that it’s dialog that’s got to be right syllable for syllable, and it takes a lot to make it note-perfect but still sounding natural.
Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino have it down and more. Kevin Spacey too, though I can’t tell if his part is easier or if he’s just got it down so good it seems natural.
I’m only going to give it 3 1/2 stars, because it’s more a documentation of a play than a movie that really stands on its own as cinema. But for the sake of Baldwin’s and Lemmon’s performances, Netflix it or something.
Really? Wow. So how was the whole contest thing set up on stage?
Tom –
Loooove the play, liked the movie. I agree this is a great scene – but it never played, well or badly, on stage – it’s not part of the play at all, it was added for the movie script.
Sad to say, I really don’t remember. I have the script around somewhere – if you want to read it I can dig it out…
Don’t knock yourself out on my account, but thanks anyway.