Glengarry Glen Ross [1992] - ITV DVD

glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross [DVD] [1992]. Any thing with so many really good stars, especially Al Pacino, is worth watching. Here you have a 'constellation'. If you are a salesman or woman it is a lesson on selling techniques! If you aren't then just watch with your mouth open! Glad I'm not a salesman.

It takes these to sell real estate...

Almost any film with Pacino is a draw so it was only a matter of time before I bought this. With so many great actors (Lemmon, Spacey, Baldwin) in the picture it does appear at first that there might be a clash of egos. However, this is not the case and nor is this film purely a vehicle for Pacino - there are long periods when he is not on screen so the other actors really get to show off their acting skills. Quite simply this is an atmospheric and powerful film. Even if you can't relate to the world of real estate I would have thought most people can relate to being in an extremely pressurised workplace where the failure to meet targets can only mean one thing: the sack. This isn't just a film about work, it is about so much more than that. It is a consideration of the rat race as we all know it, the desperate struggle people face just to survive, loss, past glory, what it means to be a man and manipulation.

The story begins at night, setting the scene for a dark drama. It becomes very clear that the characters are experiencing a nightmare situation, they have been asked to do the impossible - sell unsellable real estate to people who don't want it. The movie ends the next day in the full glare of the morning, when no-one can escape from the misdeeds of the night before. Despite the film only covering a few hours of the lives of the characters you do get a sense of their personalities, attitudes and outlook on life. None of the characters are exactly likeable but they are engaging especially when they attempt to hypnotise potential customers into buying real estate developments. Each scene shifts from one character to the next in chronological order. But not everything is shown. The viewer is excluded at certain points so that the film resembles a stage play where the characters are off stage. The ending leaves a lot to the imagination of the viewer, we don't know the exact fate of the characters, we can guess but it is not pretty.

Lemmon is a bit of a revelation in his particular role, especially if you only remember him from things like The Odd Couple. Other standout performances come from Pacino and Baldwin. Pacino is just electric in his role as the best real estate seller in the firm. He can really command your entire attention and fill the screen with his massive stage presence. He is stern, sly and smooth as Ricky Roma. The entire cast prove their mettle.

This is a lo-fi production and all the better for it. It's mean and moody.

The dialogue is also the star of the film as well as Pacino et al. It's razor sharp and full of profanities, the stuff of legend.

This is a stunning and memorable movie. It can definitely be viewed many times over. The message is overall that wit wins the day.

Have you seen a portrait blink?

Reality, when it enters one's consciousness through visual or spoken fiction, allows one to witness art in action: artistry built on immense skill, but the skill is only the key to the practitioner's unconscious - the place where, after perhaps years of trust in the psychological basement's files and boxes of stored and stacked experience - the practitioner is rewarded with a moment captured on tape or celluloid which shakes the listener or viewer to their core. Such moments are called genius.

Reality (or better call it truth) - that moment of believability, of being utterly convinced by something which our critical faculties know is a lie - is a rare experience. When watching a film, say, played out by competent actors, truth may not be in evidence but lies are just kept at bay. To be not unconvinced by a piece of acting means the actor has reached zero after learning enough skill to climb out of the minuses. There are no positive numbers on the performance board. To witness the skill of an actor who has climbed into positives is analogous to staring at a fine portrait, to take in the exquisite work, only then to have the portrait blink at you.

A superstar footballer spends ninety minutes on the pitch, but maybe only five performing eye catching skill and trickery. So it is that, the best actors, in their best movies, don't project truth for the entirety of their screen time. This may be connected to their energy and the nuances of a particular scene or situation - they can't be blamed for being good enough only to fail to attract negative attention - but when they reach the level their potential promises, maybe only for a few seconds of screen time, the truth cannot be missed. It hits with power enough to make one cry. The portrait blinks.

Glengarry Glen Ross, a movie from a classic play, was released in 1992 and made no money. Such is the way with art. The critics loved it but the box office was not bloated. Jack Lemmon demonstrates how high his artistic bar was set in this movie; he reaches a level of art high enough to convince the viewer. He has a blink of truth in his performance.

Macho becomes mixed with the timidity that comes from true desperation. In a moment, a second easily missed, Lemmon's character explodes with rage and reins in the rage and becomes mild within a second of screen time. The contortions on his face are discernible, but are gone in a moment.

Quickly, what of the character's motivation? His daughter is sick, and the hospital bills are sucking the dollars out of his wallet and the marrow from his bones, so when he tries to schmooze access to promising sales leads from a company-man office manager, and is slapped own, the rage erupts. His desperation - the higher emotion - cools him down, like foam on a petrol fire, until he his laughing and joking, being an easy, regular guy. Getting what he wants is more likely to come about with a smile than a scowl.

The viewer is sucked out of their seat into the character's gut, made to swallow the bile and grind the teeth, because in that blink of reality - the vertiginous level of art reached - one is convinced. In that moment, that second of filming, Lemmon is no actor, he has transcended, he has, to put it simply, an artistic out of body experience: He is Jack Lemmon no longer. He becomes Sheldon Levene. It is beautiful to watch; not a piece of acting, no, that would cheapen the moment, more a psychological firework display, played across the face..

It is worth watching for these moments. They allow one to realise that art has a reach greater than its medium. These moments inspire one, they keep one going; through the most tedious emotional pain, the most base and boring life situations, one can be saved by the art one is tuned to.

I think everyone, once in awhile, should tune into this piece of filmed art.

fantastic

Great movie. Not reccomended for fans of high speed car-chases, but a must-see for those who like sharp dialogue and amazing acting performances. Two actors even manage to rise above the (very high) level of their colleagues: Jack Lemmon and Alec Baldwin. Lemmon is at the same time endearing, heartbreaking and highly irritating as an elderly salesman on the way down, and Baldwin gives us the best five minutes of his career.
'Put. that. coffee. down'.

Loved it

This is the first film in which I saw Kevin Stacey, and did I hate him in it.

Don't be expecting any fight, shoot 'em ups and those kind of shenanigans.

This is a film about characters and their interaction.

It's all about he dialogue.

If you like Vin Diesel, avoid.

I loved the film. Liked the soundtrack as well (Still awaiting my order, Amazon)

Characters you could get into. Ones you could hate and like (For your information, I liked Mean Gene)

Give it a try.

Mikey