Customer Reviews

Glengarry Glen Ross (Modern Classics)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Glengarry Glen Ross" shows off to great effect the power of Mamet's language. Some readers may focus on the profanity -- and there is plenty of it -- but the profanity only serves to underscore the overwhelming anger that drives the characters in the play. Mamet's characters are bit players on a stage dominated by cockroach capitalism. It's a world that measures a man's worth solely by his ability to turn a buck, and if he can't do it, he's worthless. The characters know this, and they rail against this knowledge in venom-filled, machine-gun bursts of words.

Beyond the anger, however, the language derives its power from Mamet's much-discussed use of everyday rhythmic patterns of speech. Characters interrupt one another, leave thoughts unsaid, toss out cryptic ideas, and finish one another's sentences. It all sounds and feels absolutely real, and if you've ever tried to do it yourself, you know how difficult it is for a playwright to accomplish it.

In the end, Mamet's play presents a bleak world, yet it's a refreshing antidote to the cheerleading from the press and elsewhere that American business generally enjoys today. Mamet reveals the dark corners of small-time business, the petty jealousies, the insincere work relationships, the undisguised chauvanism, the phony macho posturing, and most of all the clear understanding among all concerned that the only measure of worth is the mark in the ledgerbook that says you made a sale. If most of the characters sound unsatisfied, it's because they are. Selling, the play says, is a hard way to make a living, and it comes at enormous spiritual cost.

I found the play's ending (which I won't give away) a bit unsatisfying and I can imagine that some readers might find the repitition in the dialogue tedious. Still, there is no denying, in my mind, the power of Mamet's vision and his devotion to his technique.

David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize winner "Glengarry Glen Ross" is an electrifying play filled with drama, tragedy, and bitter and sarcastic humor. This is a play that shows you the world of business and just how cold and calculating it can be. It also shows us just how cold and calculating human beings can be as well.

The play is about real estate salesmen who will do just about anything to get a sale. "Always Be Closing" is the motto to follow, however when they don't get the good leads they need, it makes it more difficult for them to close the deals. What's worse is that if they don't pick up the pace, more than one of them will find themselves out of the job. There are the "Glengarry Leads;" the premium leads, but they're reserved for closers only. Things take a dramatic turn when the office is broken into and the leads are nowhere to be found, leading us to a memorable climax.

I read the play after seeing the film. I enjoyed reading it just as much as I enjoyed seeing the movie. There are a few things that were added to the film version in order to make it a full length movie, but all of the important elements and classic lines are all there. Mamet has a great ear for dialogue and writes the way people talk. Sure, some people will think there's a lot of swearing and profanities, but this play is a reflection of the business world. And this is the way people talk. It is amazing how well written and structured it is.

"Glengarry Glen Ross" is a terrific drama and an enjoyable play to read. I recommend it to anyone who loves a great read. You'll have it finished in no time. The pages literally turn by themselves. Dripping with sharp dialogue, memorable characters, and quiet suspense and action, "Glengarry Glen Ross" is an outstanding achievement in American drama. Read this one as soon as you can.

The book is a sadistically dark comedy which made me laugh even though I knew that it was supposed to make me think. Mamet takes a regular setting of everyday men and turns it into a mob-like atmosphere. He sarcastically talks about the capitalistic system, emphasizing on every single perversion of it. The play begins by introducing the reader to the characters, and by establishing their places in society. Just like any other auspicious play Glengarry Glen Ross follows a specific success formula. It contains its favorites, and it's losers. Even though from the begging you can't really decide what's going on, you see by the middle of the play to which you relate best.

After a crime is committed, and a detective is called on the scene, every man is trying to save himself while still trying to make a buck. While trying to revolt against a cruel and hostile boss the characters find themselves in a world that consists of lies and deceit, where cruelty and heartlessness are necessities to survive. I really can not say anything bad about the play. It delivers on its promise providing you with every detail, starting from the charged vulgarity in its dialogue and finishing by the pure business relations that take place in this capitalistic society. It shows men turning their backs on their fathers in law for the good of the company (Levene and Williamson). This play is more then just a sarcastic tribute to the capitalism. It is an attempt to laugh off the dirt of the human kind. Just like little kids who try to laugh when they are scared in order to make it easier to bear the truth, this play was intended for those of us who seem to have lost the faith in the society.

The film version of Mamet's play with Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino is incredible and having recently attended a production of this play in the West End of London I was intrigued by the slight differences between the screenplay and the original. That's what prompted me to purchase the play and read it.
Mamet's language is powerful and the cadences that he writes for his characters really drive the action and reveal truths about their characters in subtle yet absolute ways.
This particlar version has some great introductory material about Mamet's life and work as well as some critical analysis of the play that I found very enlightening. For me this was well worth the special order.

Thought provoking and a hell of a mystery, this play is quite likely one of the best works of the past two decades.

If you're an actor, this is the play you NEED to read. As in so many of Mamet's plays, this play is about what ISN'T said. Many people don't like Mamet's style of dialogue because of that, but actors should embrace it, as it gives room for interpretation and character creation. It's a great opportunity to stretch your muscles with bare bones dialogue and clear-cut motivations.

For people who aren't actors, this is an engaging tale of greed, desperation and men-at-odds. Think Miller's "Death of a Salesman" with a dog-eat-dog bent. Modern movies that show definite signs of this play's influence - "The Usual Suspects" and "Reservoir Dogs". If you liked what those movies put on the plate, you'll love this book.

"Glengarry Glen Ross" is a must have work. David Mamet, the renowned playwright, executes a work about the struggles of four salesmen, and ultimately, the lengths a common man will go to to achieve success. After I purchased this book...I couldn't put it down. I finished the whole play within hours of its purchase. After reading "Glengarry Glen Ross", anyone is given a new outlook on sales and the stresses of everyday work. This is a "must have".

This is, to a great degree, the true David Mamet play. It exemplifies his distinctive characters, his powerful but conflicted men, his insight into moral collapse, and his famous jagged writing style. But it's also more than that.

"Glengarry Glen Ross" casts its jaundiced eye on the attitudes of competitiveness and unbridled capitalism, and their destructive effects, that have characterized the last 25 years. In his conclusion, with the death of loyalty in the face of get-ahead-at-any-cost, Mamet demonstrates just why so many of us who have to work for a living are angry and unhappy these days.

The use of language in this play, with its musical use of fragmented sentences and almost operatic vulgarity, is as epoch-making as the content. Many aspiring playwrights who have great vision but lack Mamet's gift for lyrical speech have tried--and failed--to emulate the use of language in this play. Very little new material has come out of the American theatre in the past two decades that hasn't borne the stamp of language created in this play.

Read it. See it. Stage it. This play is the defining artistic statement of the final quarter of the Twentieth Century.

This powerful and moving play--winner of the 1984 Pultizer Prize for Drama--uses the world of real estate sales to depict four salesmen who who work, or maybe struggle, to "close a deal" with less than ideal clients (financially speaking). The key word here is "closing." Throughout the play we hear the mantra "Always be Closing" as these men compete for the highest sales, which can lead to better sales leads and maybe even a new Cadillac.

The characters make this play powerful. Shelly, in his 50s, has a great history as a salesman but struggles today. The play begins with him negotiating--almost begging--for a prime sales lead. Unfortunately the dog-eat-dog world that currently employes him has little or no appreciation for his current failures and past success. Meanwhile Shelly tries to pass off his current performance (or lack of) as a slump, a move that somewhat reminds me of Willy Loman making excuses. Though Willy Loman and the characters of this play live in the same American dream of manifest destiny, the similarities are limited. Starting with Shelly, the characters of Mamet's play seem to have a more vicious inward-looking and selfish perspective toward life. Their American dream seems shallow and selfish compared to Willy's.

We see this same selfishness in scene two where Moss and Aaronow discuss the opportunity to steal the best customer leads (lists of names) from their own office, sell them to a competitor, and then maybe go work for that competitor. Like Shelly, these two salesmen appear selfish as they first fantasize about the midnight adventure only to find that one of them is quite serious.

Next comes Roma, the apparently most successful salesman of this group who is in his 40s. Not seeing Roma until the third scene, we cannot help but wonder if he will one day end up with a merciless boss who doesn't care about past sucesses (just like Shelly and the others who are in their 50s)? Roma seems to articulate the most certain morality of the main characters. He initially appears most anchored, but toward the end he talks with a customer experiencing sales remorse and we are left to wonder about Roma as well.

The play's end is quite compelling. We are not surpised in one sense, giving the ethical code of this bunch. Yet, we are quite surprised to see who emerges "alpha male" inside this office. I cannot help feeling some compassion for these salesmen who manipulate, scheme, and appear to think little of anyone but themselves. It is an amazingly simple and powerful conclusion.

I read this play in a single evening. I could not put it down. The tensions Mamet creates are compelling and many. Not since Miller's "The Crucible" have I read such a powerful play. Though this is the first work I have read from Mamet, I think I can begin to see why his work is so highly regarded. I am only sorry that the play is short and does not require more than one evening to finish. I would have enjoyed spending more time with the text.

Although I will always picture in my mind the absolutely stellar cast (Lemmon, Pacino, Harris, Arkin, Spacey, Baldwin, Pryce) from the 1992 New Line Cinema motion picture, I would like to imagine that the stage productions provided equal measures of vitality. After all, it is the words themselves which are important here. Thus, my 5-star review of Glengarry Glen Ross is equally appropriate for this, the original play. This trip through David Mamet's unique voice is very enjoyable, not least because the film stayed true to the original. (Mamet adapted his own work for the film.)


A few important differences are noted below.

* In the film, the end of Scene One, where Levine and Williamson take shelter in the car during a rainstorm, is very effective. The closed quarters highlight the desperation. In the play, their entire conversation takes place in the restaurant. Also, an early portion of the long conversation between Moss and Aaronow takes place in the coffee shop, while in the play, they are in the Chinese restaurant as well. Here, too, I think the settings in the film are better, as we see Aaronow being pursued from place to place. Glengarry Glen Ross shows us, after all, that it isn't only suckers who are targeted; the salesmen go after each other as well. [Note: one (ad-libbed?) improvement was Ed Harris' "The leads to Graff. Yes. I was saying--yeah. A guy could take--like anything else, it seams to me, that is negotiable, a guy could sell them."]

* Of course the absence of Alec Baldwin's character (named Blake, not that it is ever used in the film, other than in the credits) is notable. Mamet wrote in this role expressly for the film. Of somewhat less importance is the role of Larry Spannel which also does not appear in the original script.

* Act Two seems almost entirely identical, play vs. film. The most intriguing (and disturbing) difference seems to be with Roma's character at the very end. He becomes much less likable by attempting to cut in on Levine's commissions. Or is there something more to the story that I missed?


Fourteen bucks is a lot to pay for what is a very fast read, but then again I am not rating based on price, and in the end this is something you can enjoy frequently. I know I do.


(Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

David Mamet is at his best with this Pulitzer-Prize winning play about cut-throat salesmen working on commission. From their Chicago office four men sell vacation and retirement land in places like Florida and Arizona. The land they sell may be decent, but their lack of ethics is eye opening. Operating on a simple code of sell, sell, sell, they will misrepresent, tell stories, massage egos, and do whatever else is needed to close that deal. The play covers the personal interplay between the four salesmen and John Williamson, their heartless company-man boss who has earned their contempt. The salesmen/characters are Richard Roma, a hotshot on a winning streak, bitter Dave Moss, who's anger limits his success, and George Aronow, who is too soft for this type of sales. The last is Shelly Levine, an aging has-been who knows he'll be fired if his sales numbers don't go back up. Levine reminds of Willy Loman (from Death of a Salesman), but he's neither suicidal nor delusional - merely desperate. All work under the stress of quota's, commissions, and a sales contest where first prize is a new Cadillac and last prize is you're fired. The personality dymanics of these bitter men moves the story, as does the fact that somebody burglarized the office to steal the new sales leads.

Mamet includes those wonderful speech patterns that include clipped lines, interruptions, plus unspoken thoughts and motives. Mixed in here are the anger, dishonesty, and a cut-throat attitude of the sales force. The play is short and fast-moving, and the superb 1992 film starring Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino added some scenes. Still, this is an excellent play, powerful and emotional.