Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Directed by James Foley
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Unscrupulous salesmen try to hawk dubious real estate to suckers.
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9 films that influenced Glengarry Glen Ross
What critics say influenced Glengarry Glen Ross
Not so poignant as "Death of a Salesman," to which it's often compared, the drama really has more in common with Barry Levinson's "Tin Men."
The piece itself is a modern classic: Mamet's revisiting of the themes of Death of a Salesman with the added disillusionment of the 1980s and enough profanity to choke a motherfucker.
Not so poignant as "Death of a Salesman," to which it's often compared, the drama really has more in common with Barry Levinson's "Tin Men."
In its own way, the film is a bittersweet drama, a sort of "Glengarry Glen Ross" without the vitriol.
Enter Blake (Alec Baldwin), a suit from uptown who's sent into the trenches to give a Patton-like pep talk.
Mamet and the underrated director James Foley (At Close Range, After Dark, My Sweet) opened up Mamet's play and turned it into an extraordinary cinematic experience using bold colors, rain and a powerful use of space within the widescreen frame.
Mamet adapted his own play here and under the direction of James Foley ("After Dark, My Sweet," "At Close Range") the presentation is stagey and dark.
The film was directed by James Foley (" At Close Range "), whose timing and camera help underline the humor; a line of dialogue will end with a reaction shot that mirrors our own reaction - surprised, blind-sided, maybe a little stunned, but entertained by the zing of anger and ego in the words.
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Visuals
The shabby real estate office in "Glengarry Glen Ross" seems likely to become one of the movie places we will remember, like the war room in " Dr. Strangelove " or Hannibal Lecter's cell.
Despite a slight filmography that includes the Madonna movie "Who's That Girl," director James Foley is as adept at managing this intensely psychodramatic material as he is handling an ensemble cast with the combined power of a runaway locomotive.
I'm reminded of the following line uttered by Sigourney Weaver in Aliens : "I don't know which species is worse.
As the most dynamic character and the one who most fully lives out the whole range of themes explored in the writing, Lemmon gave his best performance in the 32 years since The Apartment , which inevitably echoes here: one generation of the American Dream gone sour informing another in the body of a pleasant-looking old man with an ingratiating voice who lashes out like a wounded animal in humiliated anger that's visceral and unpleasant to watch.
As it happened, I watched “The Apartment” not long after Jack Lemmon's death, and looked at Blake Edwards' “The Days of Wine and Roses” (1962) and James Foley's “ Glengarry Glen Ross ” (1992) at the same time.
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Certainly, it stands alongside Wall Street as one of the most unflinching views of a mindset that informed a generation of salesmen and stockbrokers during the 1980s and 1990s.