Glengarry Glenn Rose

INDIVIDUALISM AND THE POWER OF LANGUAGE IN JAMES FOLEY’S GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992)
By Judith Ramón Ibáñez

Glengarry Glen Ross is a film directed by James Foley but based on a 1984 play of David Mamet. Mamet actually wrote the screenplay for the film.
David Mamet’s style is very characteristic and based purely on deeply American landscapes and characters: In his works we can find grifters,swindlers, salesmen and very strong male characters (female characters are unimportant) who behave in a very individualistic way. One of his genuine characteristics is the use of language: the dialogues are fast, colloquial, tense, offensive and usually they are contentless.

In this essay I will try to explain the way these Mamet’s characteristics and resources are reflected in Glengarry GlenRoss and its relation with the historical context.

Ronald Reagan (President of the United States 1981-1989) took office during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and with the cold-war still present. He promoted individual freedom and people reduced reliance upon government during his presidency. To cover deficits, the US borrowed heavily domestically and abroad and thenational debt rose to $3 trillion dollars. All of this is represented in the film:
Four men are forced to sell some parcels; the one that sells more will win a Cadillac, the second will win a knife set and the other two will be fired. Eventually these men will become desperate and under extreme pressure because they have to sell when everyone is in an economic crisis and no one can buy. Individualismis seen from the very beginning, the most accurately way of describing the atmosphere is: “every man for himself”. Everyone is looking for his own personal benefit: Roma (Al Pacino) wants the Cadillac, Levene (Jack Lemmon) wants his old recognition back, and money to help his daughter, Williamson (Kevin Spacey) wants to please Mitch and Murray and stability, but when he has an opportunity ofearning illegal money he takes it, Moss (Ed Harris) is the most aggressive and wants stability and not to be under pressure and Aaronow (Alan Arkin) wants not to be fired. Everyone with his own motivations will try to gain his objectives individually. They do not realize that if they would work together as a team, they could have more benefits because they could complement each other. They all watchover their own interests and a good example of this is in the end of the movie, when Levene has to talk with the policemen about the robbery and he already knows that Williamson is going to tell on him. Roma does not know that Levene was on accessory of the robbery and thinking that Levene had just sold eight parcels, Roma says to him that they should work together (but it is too late). Individualismis very much connected with competition.
In this society, the successful ones like Roma have the opportunities, people like them, achieve the American Dream and wins the big Cadillac “El Dorado”, on the other hand, if you fail like Levene, you are bound to more failure and to the disliking of the people (like Williamson in the end of the movie). The system expects them to compete against eachother and not to work as a team. Under the pressure of competition they will lie, pretend, rob, cheat, swindle, etc. Because of this, Glengarry Glen Ross is a direct attack to individualism and American economy and business of the eighties: The cruel system converts good people into merciless desperate individuals.
Individualism in the United States is something that has been there since the birthof the nation but in the Regan’s era, it was incremented.
This is connected with another characteristic of the eighties: the reliance upon government decreased. This can be seen in the relationship the four salesmen have with their superiors: Mitch and Murray (we never actually see them). The salesmen respect their authority and know who is in charge but they totally despise them and distrust...