Glengary Glen Ross (1992)

[iamwhatiseem]

It's not really much hassle for the people with money. Just tell them to fuck off. I don't get why its so valuable to the sales people.

Leads are still used today, but this movie is also from 1992.
Before the internet, before no call listing.
So let's say a wealthy individual invest $50k in something... and the person who they dealt with knows that person has a lot more where that came from - people will pay a lot of money to get that person's info. Not only is it a person with a lot of liquid assets - but they have a history in investing.

 

[Leweman]

Leads are still used today, but this movie is also from 1992.
Before the internet, before no call listing.
So let's say a wealthy individual invest $50k in something... and the person who they dealt with knows that person has a lot more where that came from - people will pay a lot of money to get that person's info. Not only is it a person with a lot of liquid assets - but they have a history in investing.

I don't get that impression from the movie, even if that is the case.

 

[Flopper]

The first thing you will notice is nearly every character in the movie is a major star.
Pacino, Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Spacey....
This movie reminds me of 12 Angry Men... a lot. Not as good, but nevertheless well done.
The entire movie only has 8 speaking characters.
The story centers around 4 salesman working for a company that sells real estate in Florida to would be investors.
They are all crooks, who have to lie, cheat and steal if necessary to get suckers to sign on the dotted line.
All are under great stress to meet quotas, given trash for leads as they climb over each other to get to the suckers.

Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. It has been presented on Broadway and the London stage many times. The movie is just as good as the play. I've seen both. Glengarry Glen Ross, the movie is a pretty heavy drama. It takes a dark view of human nature. The language is brutal but not really offensive. This movie is for people who love sharp dialogue, compelling characters, and a stinging social rebuke of the competitive workplace.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I don't get that impression from the movie, even if that is the case.

The character played by Alec Baldwin keeps the best leads for himself and a few chosen others.
To me, the impression I get, is his character wants to force these losers and washed up has beens out.
And gives them an impossible task to sell to these useless leads that never panned out - or get fired.
And flaunts the good leads in front of them, only to lock them up in a safe... saying they are not good enough salespeople to earn them.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. It has been presented on Broadway and the London stage many times. The movie is just as good as the play. I've seen both. Glengarry Glen Ross, the movie is a pretty heavy drama. It takes a dark view of human nature. The language is brutal but not really offensive. This movie is for people who love sharp dialogue, compelling characters, and a stinging social rebuke of the competitive workplace.

And if you have ever worked in an industry of high pressure sales - it is pretty accurate actually.
I was in the newspaper industry from 1984 to 1999. The ad and classified sales staff had a VERY hard job trying to sell adspace in a dying media that just kept getting more and more irrelevant everyday.
The lying, the bullshit numbers they would tell advertisers was a daily thing.
Example - sell a "special cooking edition" - tell advertisers they are printing 50,000 of them.
Knowing damn well they are only printing 30,000 and will - maybe - get rid of 10,000.
Watching these desperate commission based people stab each other in the back, lie steal and say anything to sell ad space.

 

[Flopper]

The first thing you will notice is nearly every character in the movie is a major star.
Pacino, Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Spacey....
This movie reminds me of 12 Angry Men... a lot. Not as good, but nevertheless well done.
The entire movie only has 8 speaking characters.
The story centers around 4 salesman working for a company that sells real estate in Florida to would be investors.
They are all crooks, who have to lie, cheat and steal if necessary to get suckers to sign on the dotted line.
All are under great stress to meet quotas, given trash for leads as they climb over each other to get to the suckers.

You mentioned 12 Angry Men which is another fine dialog intensive drama. Unlike Glengarry Glen Ross, it does not take such a dark view of humanity. Actually it's a very different type of movie, a courtroom drama which takes place in one day in a Jury room as 12 angry men consider the fate of a young boy accused of murder. It really drives home the right to a trial even when the accused is obviously guilty.

12 Angry men was adapted from a teleplay by Reginal Rose performed live on the CBS Studio One in 1954. It was made into a movie in 1957 and remade in 1997. Both movies are very good and I would recommend either one, although I prefer the older version a bit better.. The 1957 version stared Henry Fonda. The 1997 version starred Jack Lemon.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

You mentioned 12 Angry Men which is another fine dialog intensive drama. Unlike Glengarry Glen Ross, it does not take such a dark view of humanity. Actually it's a very different type of movie, a courtroom drama which takes place in one day in a Jury room as 12 angry men consider the fate of a young boy accused of murder. It really drives home the right to a trial even when the accused is obviously guilty.

12 Angry men was adapted from a teleplay by Reginal Rose performed live on the CBS Studio One in 1954. It was made into a movie in 1957 and remade in 1997. Both movies are very good and I would recommend either one, although I prefer the older version a bit better.. The 1957 version stared Henry Fonda. The 1997 version starred Jack Lemon.

I only saw the original.
I was reminded of 12 angry men, because... well... it was 8 angry men.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The first thing you will notice is nearly every character in the movie is a major star.
Pacino, Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Spacey....
This movie reminds me of 12 Angry Men... a lot. Not as good, but nevertheless well done.
The entire movie only has 8 speaking characters.
The story centers around 4 salesman working for a company that sells real estate in Florida to would be investors.
They are all crooks, who have to lie, cheat and steal if necessary to get suckers to sign on the dotted line.
All are under great stress to meet quotas, given trash for leads as they climb over each other to get to the suckers.

Alec Baldwin at his absolute best!

 

[Flopper]

I think it was originally a play. Pretty intense. Are there really real estate agencies that operate like this?

It was and the author, David Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize.

 

[Mashmont]

The first thing you will notice is nearly every character in the movie is a major star.
Pacino, Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Spacey....
This movie reminds me of 12 Angry Men... a lot. Not as good, but nevertheless well done.
The entire movie only has 8 speaking characters.
The story centers around 4 salesman working for a company that sells real estate in Florida to would be investors.
They are all crooks, who have to lie, cheat and steal if necessary to get suckers to sign on the dotted line.
All are under great stress to meet quotas, given trash for leads as they climb over each other to get to the suckers.

Very depressing film. I was not a better person for having watched it. Most human beings and business people are not this way, thank God. This is Hollywood's twisted version of capitalism and business.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I think it was originally a play. Pretty intense. Are there really real estate agencies that operate like this?

It wasn't your normal real estate office.
It was an "investment" office that sells investment real estate - in this case - useless tracts of land represented as prime paradise that will make them rich.
And those companies still exist today.
I always say - if someone is trying to sell you something that is going to make boatloads of money - why don't they keep it themselves instead of sell it to you?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Very depressing film. I was not a better person for having watched it. Most human beings and business people are not this way, thank God. This is Hollywood's twisted version of capitalism and business.

I don't see it that way.
yes - it is a dark picture of humanity. But if you don't think there are people out there just like these guys... then you are just naïve.
Nobody said everyone, or even most are like this. But there are people just like them - and worse. Much worse.
Ever hear of Enron?

 

[Flash]

Back in the time frame of that movie I worked for an aerospace company as an Engineer.

Most of us there were well paid and had disposable funds.

We were all the time getting calls from sales people that had a great investment deal for us. Real estate, shares in a move project, startup technology, you name it. At least one call every week and a lot of times several. Most of the multiple calls were towards the end of the month when the salesmen were trying to meet their quotas.

These salesmen had our names and dial in phone numbers. I suspect some people at the facility were selling our phone directories.

 

[Flopper]

Very depressing film. I was not a better person for having watched it. Most human beings and business people are not this way, thank God. This is Hollywood's twisted version of capitalism and business.

I don't think the movie implied that this was a typical view of business. It's about a specific high pressure sales organization. And yes, there were some sales organizations like this. My roommate in college worked for one and became very wealthy.

When I first saw the play it helped me confirm my decision that Sales was not for me. I couldn't sell a life preserver to drowning man.

 

[Mashmont]

I don't see it that way.
yes - it is a dark picture of humanity. But if you don't think there are people out there just like these guys... then you are just naïve.
Nobody said everyone, or even most are like this. But there are people just like them - and worse. Much worse.
Ever hear of Enron?

Don't call me naive. I've been in the business world for thirty-plus years. I can tell you the number one best way to do well is to be as good a person as you can be. The notion of the cut throat guy being on top is a myth. Alec Baldwin, the top salesman in the movie is an asshole. Top guys don't act like that. This is some weirded-out leftwing playwright's guess at what the business world is really like. There are some dishonest ones out there, but they generally don't go far, aren't the norm, and shouldn't be highlighted in film.

What a dark depressing movie, that fortunately doesn't portray reality.

 

[Flopper]

Don't call me naive. I've been in the business world for thirty-plus years. I can tell you the number one best way to do well is to be as good a person as you can be. The notion of the cut throat guy being on top is a myth. Alec Baldwin, the top salesman in the movie is an asshole. Top guys don't act like that. This is some weirded-out leftwing playwright's guess at what the business world is really like. There are some dishonest ones out there, but they generally don't go far, aren't the norm, and shouldn't be highlighted in film.

What a dark depressing movie, that fortunately doesn't portray reality.

I have dealt with hundreds of salespeople over the years when I owned my business and when I worked for others. With few exceptions they never lied but they would exaggerate the capabilities of their product and fail to give a true picture of what to expect from the product. Only when you pinned them down with the right questions did you get the true picture.

The exceptions were sales reps that we did a lot of business with.