Glengarry Glen Ross DVD: Review By kerouac1

When one thinks of material written by David Mamet, the first thing that comes to mind is razor sharp dialogue and socio-political importance. With the amazing Glengarry Glen Ross, he delivers tenfold. If there has ever been an ensemble cast of greater ability, I've never heard of it. Try to top the list of actors in this movie: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, and Alan Arkin. It's like a celebrity act-off, and the winner is us, the audience. And even with a cast such as this, there is one true stand-out; Jack Lemmon. Few actors have carried such an emotional weight as Lemmon does here. He plays a salesman who's once reputable ability is fading, and his lost glory is quickly picked up by new hotshot Al Pacino (who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance). In a declining economic time, the cramped office is forced into a sales "contest" where the stakes of not meeting one's quota is their job. This is a boiling pot of tension, anxiety, and competitiveness.

Normally films adapted from plays are lacking a cinematic feel. Basically, you feel like you are watching a filmed play. Director James Foley deserves a grat deal of credit for taking Mamet's play and working it into a film that not only works, but deserves a spot in the 25 best films of all time.

A film like this actually deserves the 2-disc Special Edition treatment, but they've slightly dropped the ball. Although we get a very nice tribute to the late Jack Lemmon, as well as new Interviews with the cast and crew, the commentary track that Lemmon recorded for the Laserdisc version has, sadly, been left out. Why? I have no idea. But it would have been an even more fitting tribute to an amazing actor than the one they included. Here's a brief rundown of what you get:

"A.B.C.(Always Be Closing)"

An original doc*mentary about tracing the psychological intersection of fictional and real life salesmen. Interesting stuff. It shows how much research Mamet must have done to get into the heads of the characters he created, and it adds even more weight to the performances.

New Audio Commentary by Director James Foley

Foley is interesting to listen to, and you get the sense that he really knew the importance of the film he was making.

Tribute to Jack Lemmon

As I stated above, a nice touch, but it loses weight when one thinks that his audio commentary was dropped for some reason.

New Interviews with Cast and Filmmakers

Some of Hollywoods best look back at a perfect piece of filmmaking with which they were involved. Can you beat that? Nah, neither can I.

We're given both the Full Screen and Wide Screen version for our viewing pleasure. Both have been digitally remastered and look great. The wide screen presentation is in a 2.35:1 ratio that looks gorgeous.

The sound on this set is wonderful. Sound is easily overlooked on non-action discs, but to me, it's the performance-driven films that rely most heavily on the sound. When such complexity goes into characters, one needs to hear every subtle nuance of the performance to get the full effect. We get that here. There are 4 audio tracks to chose from: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (DTS), French (Dolby Digital 2.0).

For a dramatic, tension-filled act-a-thon, it gets no better. I stated above that this film deserves honor among the 25 top films of all time, and I stick by that. From the energy of Pacino, to the sheer brilliance displayed by Lemmon, the film delivers on all accounts. One could have hoped for more features, such as cast and crew interviews from back when the film was made, the inclusion of Lemmon's audio commentary, or even commentary from some other cast members. But, we take what we're given, and what we're given is one of the most brilliantly written and acted films ever made. Haven't seen it? Buy it. Have seen it? What are you waiting for?