30th Anniversary of Glengarry Glen Ross

Yesterday is the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. If you work in sales, you have almost certainly seen it. The movie was a critical success but didn't do well at the box office, probably because it is pretty depressing. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1992, where Jack Lemmon was awarded the Volpi Cup for best actor and went into general release on October 2nd 1992, thirty years ago yesterday.

The movie was based on David Mamet's play of the same name, and he adapted it and wrote the screenplay. The IMDb trivia section for the movie says that:

David Mamet based his original play on his own experience working in a real estate office in the 1970s, when he was a struggling playwright. He was the office manager who gave out sales leads and handled the paperwork.

It has an all-star cast with Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey. And Jonathan Pryce, who I saw on stage in London in Miss Saigon as "the Engineer." After its disappointing opening, Glengarry Glen Ross has become a cult success.

Apart from the extensive swearing, the movie is probably most famous for Alec Baldwin's appearance as the corporate guy who comes out from the city to sort things out. What is most amazing is that I have read that this part, and his speech, do not appear in the original play, so it must have had a different feel completely. Alec is only on-screen for about 8 minutes but is the most memorable aspect of the movie and the source of the memorable quotes. He was paid just $250,000. I would embed a video of some of the speech, but it is so full of profanity that it is not Breakfast Bytes material. But here's a link (NSFW for language, obviously). I thought he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, which would make it one of the nominations with the shortest screen-time, but it was Al Pacino who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

A few quotes from the speech are well-known to every salesperson (and maybe just businessperson):

Put that coffee down! Coffee's for closers only. 

The bad news is...you've got, all of you've got just one week to regain your jobs starting with tonight. Starting with tonight's sit. Oh? Have I got your attention now? Good. 'Cause we're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. You hear me? A-B-C. A...Always, B...Be, C...Closing. Always be closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING!

Actually, most people don't know the full quotes, just the key words, and probably not even what movie they came from:

Coffee's for closers.
First prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.
ABC...Always Be Closing.

If you've not seen the movie, then I totally recommend it. But I warn you that it is pretty depressing. It rains a lot, and any movie where it rains all the time is hardly an upper. Indeed, IMDb tells me that:

The single largest cost on the movie was for the rain effects throughout the first half of the film.

Oscar Trivia

I mentioned above that I mistakenly remembered that Alec Baldwin was nominated for an Oscar for his 8-minute performance. The record holder in this department is Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. He won the Best Actor Oscar for just 16 minutes of screen-time as Hannibal Lecter. Or, if we allow supporting roles, Beatrice Straight in Network, who was on screen for under 6 minutes but won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

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