Message Dan and Mike
Glengarry Glen Ross turns 34 this year, and we're finally giving David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play its due on the show. James Foley's 1992 film adaptation brings together an absolutely stacked cast — Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, and Alan Arkin — for the story of four desperate real estate salesmen pitted against each other in a brutal sales contest. We dig into how this film actually came together, including the fascinating parallel between Pacino championing this project the same way Sean Penn championed Foley's At Close Range, and how Pacino personally scouted Kevin Spacey on Broadway for the role of Williamson. We also talk through the casting history of Shelley "The Machine" Levene, a role that nearly went in a very different direction before Jack Lemmon delivered one of the great performances of his career.
We get into why the film's most famous scene — the one everyone quotes — wasn't even in Mamet's original play, and why we think the "sales" angle is honestly the least interesting theme once you dig into what this movie is really about. We also trace the play's legacy through its Broadway revivals, from Joe Mantegna's original Tony-winning run as Ricky Roma, through the 2015 revival that brought Pacino back to the stage alongside Bobby Cannavale, all the way to 2025's star-studded cast.
Before we get into the film, we open with a story about a very ill-fated car-buying negotiation involving a local salesman, and we close things out with a confession about how we got worked over by a couple of very skilled salesmen on the streets of San Diego during Comic-Con. Fair warning: this one earns its language warning, but we'd argue it's essential viewing regardless. If you take one recommendation from us all year, make it this one.
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