David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
Changing the Landscape of Glengarry Glen Ross
In adapting Glengarry Glen Ross from stage to screen, David Mamet incorporates a new
sequence that gives the audience a clearer understanding of its characters, its tone, and the stakes
involved. In addition, the expansion of time adds a new dimension to the material, while more
scenes with Jack Lemmon’s Shelly Levene puts a human face on one of its characters, something
that was not overly present in the play. With these altercations, Mamet’s work turns into
something more rounded and fleshed-out on film than what was originally produced on stage.
Arguably the most memorable scene of James Foley’s 1992 film is an early one in which
a hotshot from corporate named Blake, played by Alec Baldwin, comes to the office of the main
characters to give a motivational pep talk, although the talk is more belittling than inspiring
(sizing up the veteran Levene, Blake sneers, “You call yourself a salesman, you son of a
bitch?”). However, this talk belies some alarming news to the employees, as Blake reveals the
new rules for the monthly sales contest, “First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado...second prize, a set of
steak knives, third place is you’re fired.”
This ultimatum is delivered rather quickly in the play, in the midst of a rapid-fire
conversation between two of the salesmen, Moss and Arronow. Moss, in between Arronow’s
endless words of agreement, sneaks in what they’re up against: “A man, worked all his life, has
got to...cower in his boots...for some...sales promotion, ‘You lose, we fire your...’, it’s wrong.”
(p. 1264, 1.78-86). The brief, interrupted delivery doesn’t fully let the dramatic stakes settle in
the mind of the audience just yet, since the play starting in medias res means that the outline of
the stipulation and its subsequent reaction are absent. In the film, Blake’s announcement hangs
over the stunned, silent room as each of the three salesman takes it in.
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David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
During this scene, the camera brings in and out of focus the sales leaderboard that
reinforces the conflict at hand. As it comes into view multiple times, an attentive viewer will
notice the standings, with the absent Ricky Roma over $62,000 clear of second place. The silent
implication of the prop signals a more troubling reality for the room, that as a result of Roma’s
insurmountable lead, two of the three men in the room presently will most likely lose their jobs.
The medium of film allows the blackboard to be emphasized and focused on when James Foley
wants it to be, being able to visually drive home the precarious position of the employees in a
less murky way than having to pick it up in the play through Mamet’s signature staccato
exchanges.
Blake’s frequent demeaning of these men also illustrates the cutthroat nature of the
business involved. The person in power stays in power; there is no heroic figure in this scene that
stands up successfully to Blake, because his wealth and position tells all about where they stand
compared to him (“That watch costs more than your car!”), so all they can do is sit and take it.
As the messenger, Blake’s lack of empathy seems to echo the same dispassionate nature of the
company: “You can’t close the leads you’re given, you can’t close shit, you are shit, hit the
bricks, pal, and beat it ‘cause you are going out!” This is an illustration of the film’s triumph of
showing rather than telling; the audience gets to experience first-hand of how the company is
treating them, rather than having to rely on the word of the employees themselves through the
dialogue in Act 1.
This scene also adds something else not immediately present in the play, which is an
outline of each salesman’s character. Moss, played by Ed Harris, is all talk and no bite: he
initially tries to walk out on the abrasive Blake, but the ultimatum parks him in his seat for the
rest of the scene. This is a subtle foreshadowing to Moss’s idea of stealing the prime Glengarry
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David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
leads from the office of supervisor Williamson: he plots it but he needs Levene’s help after
unsuccessfully trying to corral Arronow into it as a cover, unable to make his plot his own.
Levene tries to illustrate the logical hole in his lack of sales: they can only make sales with good
leads, but they can’t get good leads without sales. Coupled with the deal he tries to broker with
Williamson for the Glengarry leads, the audience can sense Levene no longer believes he can
turn coal into diamonds, something Blake rounds on at first sight (“The leads are weak? You’re
weak!”). The timid Arronow, played by Alan Arkin, is completely silent during this scene; while
Moss unsuccessfully tries to counter Blake’s abrasiveness and Levene tries to reason, Arronow is
so passive that he won’t even look at Blake while he’s rounding on him inches away (“You think
this is abuse...how can you take the abuse you get on a sit?!”). His lack of words tell all about the
shrinking nature of Arronow in a business that does not seem well-suited to it. Even the absence
of Al Pacino’s Ricky Roma is telling; while Moss bristles at Roma not being present because
he’s on top the leaderboard, it’s revealed Roma isn’t standing still during the meeting. He’s
already pouncing on a potential client across the street at the restaurant, illustrating the creed
Blake is trying to put forth to the other three men, “Always be closing!” With Roma hard at work
even before the shift has begun, along with his unorthodox yet successful pitch to James Lingk, it
becomes clear how Roma has distanced himself from the rest of the pack, his job exponentially
more secure. In the play, the audience is thrown into three separate conversations, one after the
other, so the audience has to wait until everyone is in play before understanding the tier of power
within the story; with this one scene, it is completely clear where every character stands.
Another new element added to the film is the passing of time. In the play, the first act
consists of three subplots happening at the same time inside the Chinese restaurant across the
street from the office. The focus starts on Levene’s plea to Williamson to help him land prime
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David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
leads, Moss and Arronow “just talking” (p. 1266, 1.199) about the plan to steal the leads, and
Roma’s seductive pitch to James Lingk about Glengarry Highlands. Because of the singular
setting and the change of acts after all three subplots unfold, there is a sense of confinement in
the play that is not just restricted to location; there is also a feeling of watching all these elements
take place in one moment of time. In the film, James Foley and David Mamet intercut these
subplots amongst each other over a lengthy night, so the audience is going from one arc to the
next and back again. The arcs involve Levene’s negotiation with Williamson followed by an
unsuccessful house call, Moss and Arronow driving and dining while bemoaning the nature of
the job, and Roma’s slow-burn pitch to Lingk, catching his eye at the bar and slowly engaging in
casual conversation until Lingk is vulnerable to a pitch. The intercutting adds a sense of
progression and time for the shift; the audience is watching their whole night unfold instead of
just talks over a dinner table. As the night weathers on, as Levene gets more desperate, as Moss
gets more calculating, as Roma gets more confident, the audience further understands the nature
of the characters in play, so that they understand each of them completely when the story hurdles
into the crisis of Act 2 with the robbery.
A large deviation from the play involves the added sequences of Shelly Levene. At one
time, he was a force of a salesman that earned him the moniker of “The Machine”; now he’s so
far in a rut that he has yet to register on the monthly sales leaderboard, even trailing the meek
Arronow by $7,000. In the play, the audience does not get a scene that solely focuses on one
character; they watch the men talk, manipulate, and barter in pairs and groups. Here, there are
scenes involving only Levene that drive home the desperation he faces above everyone else,
needing to save his job to provide for his ill daughter. There is a new sequence where Levene
makes a house visit -- a “sit” -- with a client, only instead of dealing with the wife that he had
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David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
been setting up the deal for, he is forced to face the husband, Mr. Spannel, who he has not dealt
with directly. Both men have an unspoken air about the inevitability of the sit’s outcome, that the
pitch is dead in the water. Mr. Spannel’s hurried answers to Levene shows a unsubtle air of
disinterest, but Levene has to get a sale and talks endlessly to find any way to break Spannel’s
brick wall regarding being pitched. At one point, Spannel says him point-blank, “So you’re here
to sell me land.” This is posed as a statement, not a question. Levene dodges and evades,
knowing that the question already reveals Spannel’s lack of interest, but doggedly keeps talking
before Spannel has to shoo Levene back into the hard, unrelenting rain, not even looking at
Levene while he holds the door. The audience gets a clearer sense of the defeat rising in Shelly
Levene, who must save his job with leads that have been illustrated explicitly to be dead ends.
Levene gamely marches on, as he’s able to show off an air of self-confidence and
success to clients over the phone, even though the audience knows this is a complete 180 from
his actual morale. The audience sees Levene try everything in his arsenal, enticing clients with
“awarded” land, dropping by with “surprise” visits, and setting up meetings via his imaginary
secretary, “Grace”. In the play, the audience does not see the men at work beyond Roma and
Lingk, so it must taken at their word that the leads are undermining their chance to save their
jobs. With Levene getting stonewalled and futilely trying to land a sale, the audience sees for
themselves the bleak outlook everyone but Roma faces.
When Levene reveals himself to be the one who broke into Williamson’s office and stole
the leads for he and Moss to sell off, the audience is understanding. In the play, because the
material is hands-off with each character, there is little sympathy for Levene, which in itself is
not to the detriment of the play because that is not Mamet’s aim. But after seeing what Levene is
up against, and the necessity of his daughter’s health forcing him to do something, the audience
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David Saldana-Montgomery
ENGL 453, Term Paper, 11/14/12
still doesn’t have to condone what he did, but it also makes it easier not to condemn. Levene isn’t
stealing because he is solely devious, but because he is beyond desperation and defeat, and
having seen it for themselves in the film, the audience can at least understand why.
David Mamet’s play jumps headlong into its story already in motion, the conflict already
established before the story begins. The play also keeps the audience at arm’s length with the
characters due to both the lack of a protagonist and scenes involving a single individual. By
adding the scene with Blake at the start the film, there is an early establishment of tone,
character, and conflict that clearly expresses to the audience what the story will be about. The
expansion of time and place in the film also amplifies the nature of the situation that the
characters face, while the more prevalent presence of Shelly Levene allows further exploration
into what drives these men in a job filled with desperation and dispassion. These new elements
radically alter Glengarry Glen Ross into something more accessible for its audience, while
maintaining and adding to the complex character nuances of Mamet’s work.Works Cited
Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross. The Norton Anthology of Drama.
Vol. Two. New York: Norton, 2009. 1257-292. Print.
Glengarry Glen Ross. Dir. James Foley. Perf. Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan
Arkin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, and Alec Baldwin. New Line
6Cinema, 1992. Film.
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