Blu-ray Review: Glengarry Glen Ross (Collector’s Edition)

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

With high school and college graduations happening around the country in various forms because of the pandemic of 2020, you might want to get an inspirational gift for someone stepping into the working world. Let me recommend to you a copy of Glengarry Glen Ross: Collector’s Edition. Have you heard of this movie or maybe seen the play performed? It’s the Master Class you don’t get in school because no teacher outside of the psychotic vice principal would dare unleash this bleak vision on a young mind. But you can do it because kid in a cap and gown needs to have a fear put in their soul. You can lure them in with the promise of seeing the guy from Scarface. But they’re not going to like Al Pacino’s desk here. Because instead of being a drug kingpin, Al’s hustling real estate on the phone. He along with an all star cast are doing their hardest to close sales because at the end of the night, quite a few of them are getting the axe. When this play came out in the early ’80s, it seemed like a glimpse on distant underbelly life. Petty much half of the jobs that are listed online now fall into these categories.

A few years ago I was hired by a cable company to work as a late night customer service operator. I was the guy you called at 2 a.m. when your pay-per-view of John Wick locked up on the cable box. It seemed like the perfect job during training until the last day when the plant supervisor dropped by to let us know that we were considered a “Service 2 Sales” operation and there were quotas for us to hustle each month of internet, digital phone and HBO. Every call we handled went against our quota. So if a 100 year old man called up looking for the football game channel, I nudge him to get the internet. “Complete the Bundle” was our mantra. As the month came to the end, people would get desperate to boost their sales numbers. People had their own little cheats to trick the computer into thinking they’d made a sale. If a person called up in a blackout, a few operators would remove and reinstall their services in order to “get the sale.” The person at home had no clue since their TV was already off. But every night, I sat at my chair in the pod, it felt like I was taking part in a knock-off traveling company of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Premiere Properties is a tucked away operation in a city where four salesmen are in for the night they weren’t expecting. Ricky Roma (Al Pacino), Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), Dave Moss (Ed Harris) and George Aaronow (Alan Arkin) sit at their desks expecting another night of calling up people to sell them real estate in Arizona and Florida at future developments. Naturally the land is either deep in the desert or a swamp bog. But they just need to move those deeds. But this night office manager John Williamson (Kevin Spacey) introduces a special guest. Blake (Alec Baldwin) is a salesman from the downtown office and has an announcement that the company is changing this month’s contest so that third prize and lower is going to be getting fired. None of the four are wanting to have to find a new job. But this is a business where they are expected to call the leads given to them by Williamson. They’re not cold calling people out of the phone book. All four want the precious leads with people who are eager to invest. There’s desperation between all these men that leads to someone busting into the office and taking the leads locked in Williamson’s office. Who isn’t a suspect in this crime?

The film captures the intensity of the play. All six of the main actors give prime performances. Jonathan Pryce (Brazil) shines as the customer that’s been lined up as a sucker. Director James Foley doesn’t visually overwhelm us with his camera moves and editing. He lets the actors draw us into the hotbox of their lives. The camera dances with them as they move around the dimly lit desks. What’s strange is that the film wasn’t a big hit when it came out in the Fall of 1992. Perhaps it just was too much for an audience that had no idea that Quotas and Service 2 Sales were on the horizon. They viewed these guys as living in a world they’d never have to touch. But over the 28 years, we’ve all found ourselves in companies that view Glengarry Glen Ross as a educational movie in how to get more out of their employees. The reality of the movie has seeped into our lives every time a supervisor pulls open your tracking reports.

When I was a kid in the ’70s, my parents met with a salesman that was selling speculation real estate in the Orlando, Florida area. We went down there to “check out” the future hot spot since we wanted a discount vacation to Disney World. Turned out the place was so deep in a swamp that the road didn’t go near our prospective parcel of gator resort. My folks didn’t buy. What I really remember was that the salesman admitted that he was the grandson of a notorious Chicago mobster. So seeing Tony Montana hustling property like this seems natural to me. Glengarry Glen Ross is the best film to prepare any graduate for the working world.

The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfer is a 4K Scan from the original camera negative. The details in the actors’ faces draws you into the desperation. The audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1 so you hear all around the office. There’s also the original stereo mix in DTS-HD MA 2.0. The movie is subtitled.

A Conversation With Director James Foley (37:23) has him mention he shared an agent with Al Pacino. Al wanted to talk with Foley about scripts including Seven. Al didn’t take his time to meet. Foley had seen the play. He thought David Mamet’s screenplay adaptation improved the stage play.

“God Bless Ricky Roma” – Actor Joe Mantegna Remembers Working With David Mamet (24:31) the star of Criminal Minds discuss working on the play. He and Mamet crossed paths early in Chicago. He didn’t get to be in Sexual Perversity In Chicago. He did the first table read of American Buffalo. He talks about how he wasn’t sure if Glengarry Glen Ross script was good since he didn’t understand real estate terms. He had to get a pal to clue him into the lingo. He has a great tale of how Harold Pinter got the play on stage in London.

Audio Commentary With James Foley has the director reflect on working with an all-star cast with a legendary stageplay that had been adapted by the David Mamet.

Audio Commentary With Actor Jack Lemmon makes this a solid reason to buy. Jack considers this one of his favorite roles. He considers Mamet the greatest living playwright. He has praise for the cast and director. He talks of the ability for everyone to understand the play and the characters. He appreciated that the production gave them two weeks to rehearse before shooting. He points out there was not a single ad lib in the film. They had to find and stick to the rhythm of the words. He speaks of Alec Baldwin’s work. This is a Master Class from Jack Lemmon. Please note that this was recorded before Kevin Spacey’s scandals erupted so don’t hold it against Jack. He was in the studio recording this when Robert Altman’s Short Cuts was still being cut in 1993.

“A.B.C. (Always Be Closing)” Documentary (29:59) ties this play back to Death of a Salesman. Various people talk about being salesman. Legendary documentary director Albert Maysles talks of being a Fuller Brushman. He speaks of working on Salesmen with his brother David. He goes into why following a real salesman was better than if they had written him as a character.

Magic Time: A Tribute to Jack Lemmon (30:05) has Chris Lemmon, Peter Gallagher, John Avildsen, James Lipton and others share tales of working and hanging out with Jack Lemmon.

Shout! Factory presents Glengarry Glen Ross: Collector’s Edition. Directed by: James Foley. Screenplay by: David Mamet. Starring: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin. Rated: R. Running Time: 100 minutes. Released: June 2, 2020.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.