Directed by: James Foley
Starring: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce
Strong arming people to purchase dubious property must be a soul-crushing way to earn a living. The salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross have to deal with it every day. Now there is a hotshot from downtown giving them all a warning under the guise of a sales contest: "First prize is a new Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired," As if these guys didn't have enough pressure on them.
The man feeling the heat the most is Shelly Levene (Lemmon), who hasn't made a sale in ages. He used to be the office sales king, but now he is reduced to making house calls on rainy nights to potential clients who don't want to buy what he's selling. The current sales champ is slickster Ricky Roma (Pacino), who is across the street in a bar schmoozing a guy who is very, very unsure about buying land and even more unsure about Roma. Roma is a smooth talker: calm, frank, and confident. He may one day be Shelly, but as of now he is king.
One of the other two salesmen in the office of Rio Rancho Properties are Dave Moss (Harris), who forever feels he is treated unfairly. If he concentrated on sales as much as he did griping, he wouldn't have to worry about his job. Moss pitches his plan to his fellow hard luck case George Aaronow (Arkin) to rob the office of the "Glengarry" leads, which contain the names of people who may want to buy property. These leads are held over the heads of the men by Blake (Baldwin), a cocky representative of "Mitch and Murray", who are the bosses much discussed, but never seen. "I could give you the Glengarry leads, but that would be like throwing them away," he tells the guys. He also challenges their collective manhood and provides advice (or a demand), "Always Be Closing."
Rounding out the cast of stellar actors is Kevin Spacey as John Williamson, the office manager whom the men don't trust or respect. He is seen as too much of a pawn of Mitch and Murray and follows the rules too closely, almost coldly, but he gets the last laugh when Shelly divulges information he shouldn't to John while insulting him during a fleeting moment in which he feels relevant again. John is amazingly able to keep a cool, detached demeanor when dealing with these egotistical hotheads, which is either a gift or a curse.
Other than an office robbery which remains off-screen, Glengarry Glen Ross is mostly a dialogue-driven film about desperate men; some more desperate than others. The actors fit the roles so comfortably you would think they once were walking the sales beat. The rain pours down at night like reality crashing down around everyone's head, unless you are on top like Roma, who seems to enjoy the tap dance he has with his new client (Pryce). Despite the rejections and threats to their job security, you get the feeling, other than Moss, that these men enjoy the art of selling. It is indeed an art. Glengarry Glen Ross understands that.
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