Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
(YouTube Streaming, December 2019) As befits its enduring popularity as a theatre piece for all-male casts, there aren’t that many better choices than Glengarry Glen Ross for pure actors’ showcases. A high-testosterone tale of crime, machismo, hustling and desperation, it’s two hours of shouting, posturing and profanity-laced dialogue. Directed unobtrusively enough by David Foley to create the ideal rain-soaked atmosphere for David Mamet’s dialogue, it leaves centre state to those who matter most: the actors. Even nearly thirty years later, it’s a dream ensemble: Where else can you see Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce? Alex Baldwin, obviously, has the one-scene choice role here as the hotshot seller haranguing the troops into doing better and setting up the central conflict of the film—nearly everything that people usually quote from the film comes from his high-impact tirade—“ABC: Always Be Closing.” The trickier fun of the script comes later as the men talk among each other and convince each other that can still do what they do best—convince people to give them money. It’s a reflection on masculinity and how it’s too often conflated with hustling, and no weakness can ever be displayed. Unlike many movies, it can be listened for the sheer joy of its dialogue as well as it can be watched for the physical staging. No matter how you cut it, Glengarry Glen Ross remains a highlight.
