Taglines: A story for everyone who works for a living.
Glengarry Glen Ross depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen who are supplied with leads: the names and phone numbers of prospects; they use deceitful and dubious tactics to make sales. Many of the leads rationed out by the office manager lack either the money or the desire to actually invest in land.
Blake (Baldwin) is sent by Mitch and Murray, the owners of Premier Properties, to motivate the sales team. Blake unleashes a torrent of verbal abuse on the salesmen and announces that only the top two will be allowed access to the more promising Glengarry leads and the rest of them will be fired.
Shelley “The Machine” Levene (Lemmon), a once powerful and successful salesman, now in a long-running slump and with a chronically ill daughter in the hospital with an unknown medical condition, knows that he will lose his job soon if he cannot generate sales. He tries to persuade office manager John Williamson (Spacey) to give him some of the Glengarry leads, but Williamson refuses. Levene tries first to charm Williamson, then to threaten him, and finally to bribe him. Williamson is willing to sell some of the prime leads, but demands cash in advance. Levene cannot come up with the cash and leaves without any good leads.
Meanwhile, Dave Moss (Harris) and George Aaronow (Arkin) complain about Mitch and Murray, and Moss proposes that they strike back at the two by stealing all the Glengarry leads and selling them to a competing real estate agency. Moss’s plan requires Aaronow to break into the office, stage a burglary and steal all of the prime leads. Aaronow wants no part of the plan, but Moss tries to coerce him, saying that Aaronow is already an accessory before the fact simply because he knows about the proposed burglary.
At a nearby bar, Ricky Roma (Pacino), the office’s top “closer,” delivers a long, disjointed but compelling monologue to a meek, middle-aged man named James Lingk (Pryce). Roma does not broach the subject of a Glengarry Farms real estate deal until he has completely won Lingk over with his speech. Framing it as an opportunity rather than a purchase, Roma plays upon Lingk’s feelings of insecurity.
The film then skips to the next day when the salesmen come into the office to find that there has been a burglary and the Glengarry leads have been stolen. Williamson and the police question each of the salesmen in private. After his interrogation, Moss leaves in disgust, only after having one last shouting match with Roma.
During the cycle of interrogations, Lingk arrives to tell Roma that his wife has told him to cancel the deal. Scrambling to salvage the deal, Roma tries to deceive Lingk by telling him that the check he wrote the night before has yet to be cashed, and that accordingly he has time to reason with his wife and reconsider.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American drama film, adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play of the same name, and directed by James Foley. The film is set in either New York City or Chicago, and was filmed in New York City. It depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen and how they become desperate when the corporate office sends a trainer to “motivate” them by announcing that, in one week, all except the top two salesmen will be fired. Like the play, the film is notorious for its use of profanity; leading the cast to refer to the film jokingly as “Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman”.[9] The title of the film comes from the names of two of the real estate developments being peddled by the salesmen characters: Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms.
The world premiere of the film was held at the 49th Venice Film Festival, where Jack Lemmon was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Al Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film. The film grossed $10.7 million in North America, on a $12.5 million budget.
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Directed by: James Foley
Starring: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, Jude Ciccolella, Lori Tan Chinn, Neal Jones, Barry Rohrssen
Screenplay by: David Mamet
Production Design by: Jane Musky
Cinematography by: Juan Ruiz Anchía
Film Editing by: Howard E. Smith
Costume Design by: Jane Greenwood
Set Decoration by: Robert J. Franco
Art Direction by: William Barclay
Music by: James Newton Howard
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: October 2, 1992
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