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Glengarry Glen Ross Customer Reviews (40 - 42 of 62 Reviews)

Coffee is for closers!
Anyone who has not yet seen a David Mamet film needs to do themselves a favor and get a hold of this one. Mamet transferred his play into this film version and put together an incredible cast to play the salesmen. How good is the cast when Alan Arkin is basically overshadowed both by the names on the list and the characters on the screen?

Times are tough at Premiere Properties. Sales are down for all except Ricky Roma (Al Pacino), who is on a streak. The others have to endure a "sales conference" at the beginning of the film from corporate heavy Blake (Alec Baldwin) where he basically challenges their manhood and insults them in one of the funniest seven minute monologues in movie history. Basically, if they don't meet their quotas, they will be canned. Some of the veterans like Shelley "the machine" Levene (Jack Lemmon), George (Arkin) and Dave Moss (Ed Harris) then try to pick up from there and go sell this garbage real estate to the "deadbeats" the office manager, Williamson (Kevin Spacey) has given them as leads.

The big problem is that there are new leads which are apparantly very promising, the Glengarry leads, but Baldwin and Spacey make it clear that they will only go to "closers", people who can get customers to sign on the dotted line. If you are not doing well, you don't get the best names. This presents a paradox. If you can't get legitimate customer prospects, how will you ever get out of the hole? Somewhere in the movie a crime is committed which changes the premise of the film for the second half, and the characters all have to respond to the new situation put upon them.

What makes this a remarkable film is the dialogue. It's not for kids- this film features more swearing than most movies you will watch, but the actors really get into the lines they are given and are all enjoyable, except Arkin, who looks like someone who has had one too many labotomies. Lemmon is fantastic, as is Pacino. Harris is a sniveling crybaby and Spacey does a great job as an office manager who really does not know how to do the job he has been given.

The DVD is good. Not great, but good. The DTS track is clear, as is the transfer. The first half of the movie is on a dark rainy night, which can be a problem visually, but the film handles it beautifully. The bonus features are ok, but I would have liked to hear Lemmon's commentary which was on the laserdisc. The other features are interesting, but nothing extremely special.

I recommend this film. It is another example of why movies are good. They are not good for the computer graphics, or the explosions, or action. Movies are good because of good characters. That's the way it has always been. This film will give you great actors playing great characters. That's all you need.

Best Sales Movie Ever
Exaggeration & Repetition: Performance keys to live by

There are two keys to being a good performer, whether you are writing or telling a story, whether you are selling something or selling yourself: Always exaggerate things by one thousand percent, and use repetition at least 500 percent.

Those who understate a story or product that may not be very strong in the first place, will fall victims to making that story or product look weak. The way to avoid making yourself or whoever/whatever you are representing look weak is to follow the aforementioned keys. The way to do that when the product or story is weak is to learn how to "B.S." That is where being a good performer comes in...

You are an actor, and being outgoing and to the extreme will always give the impression that whatever you are talking about is "the best." A good actor can do this perfectly and not come off as overly co.cky or obnoxious. Always say what the other person wants to hear. The customer is always right. Do whatever you can to "nail the gig."

There is something else to keep in mind when doing this particular form of "B.S.-ing," and that is the "K.I.S.S." method of "keep-it-simple-stupid." That may sound like a contradiction to the keys, but it is not. Keeping it simple, is not disclosing the real specifics, but still making your case sound like it's above and beyond every other possible option. This comes in handy particularly when someone asks you a question that you may not know the full answer to. That is where "filling" comes in---something that students do when writing an English essay on a test. If you have a general idea of what you want to say but don't have a specific reply to a portion of the question, you "fill" that essay with long winded run-on sentences. However, the whole thing must be coherent, and if your essay is well-written and has a good amount of clever puns and humor, you cannot lose. If you are a slick actor or writer, you can fool even the best of English teachers into at least giving you an "E" for effort.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will never lose if you can "meet in the middle." What that means is this: Suppose a shirt looks like it is worth $15 to a customer but you build it up so much and make it sound like it's worth $50... By the end of the conversation, if you are doing your job, you are going to get them to meet you in the middle and the final conclusion will be that the price of the shirt is around $25. The real worth may be no more than $15 (and maybe even less), and certainly nowhere near $50, but you still get the "E" for effort and earn $25. You aren't really getting into details on why the shirt is worth so much more than the customer thinks, but you are pounding it into their head that it's worth $50. You are exaggerating and repeating. You are using adjectives that may or may not apply to that shirt but you are making it sound great and far above what it's worth. So finally, they will concede a price of $25. You were stretching the truth about the shirt being worth $50 and they may have been undervaluing it at $15. Essentially, you are both lying and both playing a game with one another, but finally, a minimum of $25 is agreed upon. No one may ever find out the true value, but it's irrelevant anyway. This works in any situation.

Exaggeration and repetition. But remember to K.I.S.S.

These keys could have been discussed in one paragraph, but it took an entire page, yet you as the reader were compelled to hang onto each word from start to finish. So I succeeded as a writer in that this essay was read from start to finish and my point was proven.

The "Whale"

A whale is a customer that you pull in, hook, line and sinker and mount on the wall. He is a golden nugget, a superstar, a monster. This type of customer that you get lucky enough to snag will be your customer for life. That means, you will either be set up for life from one deal you strike up or you will have him as a repeat customer that you can call back as a strong possible prospect forever.

Sometimes it is tough to spot a whale, he may not always be overly outgoing or obvious about being a "buyer." So anyone can be a whale. The way to learn if someone is a whale or not is to simply get into their home and learn about their life and about them. So anything you can do to get your foot in the door will work.

Start off small and discuss something that may appeal to their interest and work your way into their world. Don't pre-judge them until you learn about them. This will take time and patience, but all you need is a small "in" and then you can build on that and if you win the whale's trust, all it takes is one big deal to set you up for life.

So practice the "A.B.C." method of "always be closing" with everyone, because anyone can be a prospect. While the impression may be given that you genuinely care about them, the main objective is getting them to sign on the dotted line.

Of course the obvious "Gordon Gecko" type whales who go around showboating their spending habits and their skills are the true whales that if you are lucky enough to somehow snag, you are set.

Always Be Closing....
This is just a mesmirizing picture. For 100 minutes, you are rivited to the screen, watching the presence of six spectacular performers speaking dialogue so crisp and beautiful it can almost be considered poetry.While this film is initially about real estate and the men who sell it, Glengarry Glen Ross is ultimately about the working man and what lengths he will sink to to perserve both his job and his pride. Of all the superb performances in this film, Alec Baldwin and Jack Lemmon stand out the most. Baldwin's ten minutes of 'motivation' are harrowing, Lemmon's performance of a once great real estate broker who has fallen on hard times is both touching and pathetic. Of course, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey are spectacular as well, it's Lemmon who is perhaps the most identifiable character to most viewers.One reviewer wrote of this film that ensemble casts of this magnitude rarely ever stand up to the presented material, this film's cast certainly does. Brilliantly written and acted, this is one of the very best films of the 1990's and a true masterpiece for all time.

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