Scooter Chronicles

On Sunday Marcia and I watched (surprise, surprise) another movie with Al Pacino in it. This time it was “Glengarry Glen Ross”, also starring Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, and Alec Baldwin.

Here is a rundown on the plot, thanks to Patrick Dominick and IMDB, with a few changes by myself:

Times are tough in a Chicago real-estate office; the salesmen, Shelley Levene (Lemon), Ricky Roma (Pacino), Dave Moss (Harris), and George Aaronow (Arkin) are given a strong incentive by Blake (Baldwin) to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac El Dorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is a pink slip! There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only “closers” will get the good sales leads. There is a lot of pressure to succeed, so a robbery is committed which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters.

The movie was done in 1992, and was based on the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning play of the same name from 1984.

I was shocked at some of the dialog in the movie. Didn’t expect it. And never thought I would see a movie were Jack Lemmon is dropping “f-bombs” like there’s no tomorrow. Yet the movie has mega-substance. Quick amazing. Now hearing Pacino use that kind of language, that’s nothing. And I haven’t even seen “Scarface” yet!

There were some good twists, some great acting, and a simple premise. That is all you need, isn’t it? Seeing that it is based off a play, you don’t get a lot of scene changes. Most everything happens within the confines of the office. Also, the dialog (though full of profanity) carries everything. So it’s up to the actors to bring this together, and they don’t disappoint.

It wasn’t the greatest film I have seen, but it’s a sleeper. Been seeing it in video stores for years, and never knew what it was about. No one ever talked about it. Too bad.