Glengarry Glen Ross
1 Oscar Nominations
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Unscrupulous salesmen try to hawk dubious real estate to suckers.
What critics thought
Mamet's adaptation of his own stage play drew near-universal praise for its ferocious ensemble performances and the crackle of its dialogue, with Lemmon in particular singled out as a standout. The main fault line among critics ran between those who saw the film as a riveting piece of claustrophobic cinema and those who felt director James Foley never fully escaped the play's theatrical origins, leaving the world of the film feeling sealed and stagey rather than alive.
“Mamet's dialogue has a kind of logic, a cadence, that allows people to arrive in triumph at the ends of sentences we could not possibly have imagined. There is great energy in it. You can see the joy with which these actors get their teeth into these great lines, after living through movies in which flat dialogue serves only to advance the story.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“a well written, well staged and well acted piece, though there is something musty in its aesthetic - that of the huge, bellowing method performance, plastered over a flimsy, one-set world”
Dave Kehr·Chicago Tribune
“Baldwin is sleekly sinister in the role of Blake, a troubleshooter called in to shake up the salesmen. He shakes them up, all right, but this character (not in the original play) also shakes up the movie's toned balance with his sheer noise and scatological fury”
Jack Kroll·Newsweek
“doesn't add much more than the street between. If his intention is to create a sense of claustrophobia, he also creates the (presumably) unwanted effect of a soundstage. There is no evidence of life outside the immediate world of the movie.”
Desson Howe·The Washington Post
Genres
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Cast & Crew
DirectorJames Foley
StarringAl Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris
ComposerJames Newton Howard
Glengarry Glen Ross
1 Oscar Nominations
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Unscrupulous salesmen try to hawk dubious real estate to suckers.
What critics thought
Mamet's adaptation of his own stage play drew near-universal praise for its ferocious ensemble performances and the crackle of its dialogue, with Lemmon in particular singled out as a standout. The main fault line among critics ran between those who saw the film as a riveting piece of claustrophobic cinema and those who felt director James Foley never fully escaped the play's theatrical origins, leaving the world of the film feeling sealed and stagey rather than alive.
“Mamet's dialogue has a kind of logic, a cadence, that allows people to arrive in triumph at the ends of sentences we could not possibly have imagined. There is great energy in it. You can see the joy with which these actors get their teeth into these great lines, after living through movies in which flat dialogue serves only to advance the story.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“a well written, well staged and well acted piece, though there is something musty in its aesthetic - that of the huge, bellowing method performance, plastered over a flimsy, one-set world”
Dave Kehr·Chicago Tribune
“Baldwin is sleekly sinister in the role of Blake, a troubleshooter called in to shake up the salesmen. He shakes them up, all right, but this character (not in the original play) also shakes up the movie's toned balance with his sheer noise and scatological fury”
Jack Kroll·Newsweek
“doesn't add much more than the street between. If his intention is to create a sense of claustrophobia, he also creates the (presumably) unwanted effect of a soundstage. There is no evidence of life outside the immediate world of the movie.”
Desson Howe·The Washington Post
Genres
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Cast & Crew
DirectorJames Foley
StarringAl Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris
ComposerJames Newton Howard