Glengarry Glen Ross Blu-ray Review

• 23rd Oct 2012

This hard hitting drama is every bit an actor’s film. Written by David Mamet the film does little to disguise that this could be a theatre performance (not surprising that many members of the cast are actors who made their career from the big screen but are champions of the stage). In the latter stages of his career Al Pacino has advocated his love of Shakespeare and over the last few years has favoured the stage. The same too can be said of Kevin Spacey who has up until recently established himself in the UK and was the director of The Old Vic near Waterloo. But the rest of the cast is just as impressive: Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce and a biting lengthy cameo by Alec Baldwin. The story begins at a bar with Jack Lemmon as Shelley ‘the machine’ Levene, a veteran salesman desperately following up on some poor leads he has and trying to cold call selling real estate land from a phone booth. Meanwhile nearby his colleagues are also trying to follow through on some duff leads. Another member of the office team also works in the same office, Ricky Roma, a hot shot smooth talking Italian American (played by Pacino) who begins chatting to another stranger at the bar and eventually succeeds in making a sale. Rome is hot and the others fell that they are in a slump. As they all, except Rome head back to the office across the street they are greeted by their boss, Williamson (Spacey) who introduces the ruthless outrageous Blake (Baldwin, for my money one of his best performances) who comes down from head office to tell the team that in no uncertain terms that their jobs depend on selling the leads and those who fail will lose their jobs, second place gets a set of steak knives and the highest achiever wins a car, keeps his job and gets the highly sort after Glengarry leads. This causes the office to start to turn to extremes in getting those leads.

This is a brilliant stagey drama with director James Foley drawing some of the best performances from all involved – Arkin admits in an interview that this was the hardest, most exacting work that he had ever done. David Mamet’s play distinctly says that there is no time or place for losers. ABC: Always Be Closing is the maxim that Blake and the company Premiere Properties is screaming out here. As for Jack Lemmon, in the twilight of his acting career is able to deliver the best performance of his career since The Apartment in 1960. He is uncomfortable to watch as the salesman on a losing streak; you know that he is the disappointed, down trodden man who is trying to do the best he can for his family but when we hear him on the phone cold calling, the viewer squirms at the insincerity of sales patter. As Lemmon says “you don’t have to like the character to care about him” and he succeeds with spades. Ultimately this film is a perfect storm though between the performances, Foley’s direction and Mamet’s brilliant script who already had scripted The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982) and The Untouchables (1987).

There are many extras on the disc, one of which, a talking heads documentary called ‘ABC: Always Be Closing’ explores the truth behind the fiction and provides a good insight into that very American of phenomenon’s: the salesman and explores how close to the truth Glengarry Glenn Ross is. It uses real accounts of salesman and how they got into the biz and includes lines from Arthur Miller’s play, ‘Death of a Salesman’. They tell their stories as though they were gangsters trying to cut a deal. Other documentaries include a tribute to Jack Lemmon, TV interviews with Lemmon, Arkin and Spacey (in an episode of ‘The Actor’s Studio’) as well as commentaries by some of the principles. The extras bear as a tribute though not only to the actors but also to the idea of the salesman as an iconic figure of the American dream. All in all this is a very handsome package with a heap of extras to accompany a new dual format disc that clearly shouts this out as a modern classic well worthy for its fame and should justly be seen by a new audience.

Chris Hick

The Blu-ray is also available as a Steelbook set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Glengarry-Glen-Ross-Steelbook-Blu-ray/dp/B008XHDKTU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351073465&sr=8-1