A Guys Movie

By definition, a guys movie can be labelled as a big budget action flick starring Arnie or Sly, or The Godfather. There's practically no room in between for a well acted and very intriguing character study. While most of those grandiose films are indeed epic with a big cast, Glengarry Glen Ross is a testament to all things epic. For one thing, you can't get a movie this well acted, where every actor is so in tune with their character and where they are in the play, that any perception of Glengarry Glen Ross as a movie just melts away, and you find yourself literally glued to watching these performers on screen, tearing away at the scene like hungry dogs at a piece of meat. This is indeed a mesmerizing movie just for the cast alone, but watching them spew obscenities at each other like bolts of lightning, is like catching it in a bottle, and this is a movie where you won't see that happen for quite some time. If not, for many, many years.

Glengarry Glen Ross is the movie based on the David Mamet play, adapted for the screen. Sadly, it wasn't as big a hit as it should've been, but any movie like this that's being released in summer, rarely is going to be a hit. But a movie like this is indeed a classic of it's time, save for it's cast alone: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin and Jonathan Pryce. These are guys who truly have experience under their belt as performers, and Mamet's play ultimately gives them their voice, as vulgar and as crass as it might be. The way Pacino's Ricky Roma shouts his rebuttal at a cop with "I'm Ricky Roma, who the f*ck are you?" How Kevin Spacey in his true moment of defiance, simply tells off his sworn enemy (Lemmon) with a simple line "Because I don't like you." While on words, these lines aren't realized but on screen with the actors, you don't forget them.

Truly a guys movie of the highest order, Glengarry Glen Ross follows one unforgettable night and one tumultous day as these dangerous souls pour over the very real possibility of losing their jobs. The thing is, they're all real estate salesmen and they're at the end of their month. When they don't meet their quotas, they get the second prize as dubbed by tyrannical boss Blake (Baldwin), "You're fired!" he shouts in his single scene as one of the cruelest motivational speakers in film. Some of the men are hotshots like Roma, while others are clinging onto the fact that they live in fear of their jobs (Arkin, Harris and especially Lemmon). Men like Roma don't have to worry because they know they're making it easy. But for people like Shelley Levene (Lemmon), he's about to fall off the wagon and very, very hard.

Originally a stage play, Glengarry Glen Ross takes place in two main locations: their Chicago real estate office and the Chinese restaurant across the street. But location isn't important when it's this cast. There are equal amounts of praise that go to each actor, because each one is riveting in their own way. But the real standout for me, is Lemmon. Lemmon's characterization is a man so relentlessly desperate, that he goes to depths so low that surprise even him. In the movie's final moments, Shelley's final attempts at levity are dismissed. Mainly because he insulted a man (Spacey) that's looked the other way too often for him. Glengarry Glen Ross is very much a movie about male testosterone, about male one upmanship. These men may seem like chums around the office, but when it comes to their jobs, it's every man for himself and they pull no punches in job survival.

Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie that's inevitably well acted because every actor contributes and they do it in their own way that can't make you forget watching them. To indicate what a New Classic is, think no further than a movie like Glengarry Glen Ross.