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Like most Americans, I hate Alec Baldwin. But in
the hands of David Mamet's excellent screen play, Baldwin becomes a
man you love to fear. Glengarry is the story of four real
estate salesmen at Premiere Properties who are offered the ultimatum
above. Mitch and Murray "from downtown" are growing dissatisfied
with the results from their sales team, so they send Alec over to put the
fear of God into them. And what a sales team it is: past-his-prime
Sheldon "The Machine" Levine (played by Jack Lemmon; this character is
also the basis for "Gil" from "The Simpsons"), smooth-as-silk Ricky Roma
(Al Pacino), and whiners Dave Moss and George Aaronow (played by Ed Harris
and Alan Arkin, respectively). Rounding out the stellar cast is
office manager John Williamson (Kevin Spacey) and hapless customer James Lingk
(Jonathan Pryce). Even though there are neither guns nor car chases,
Glengarry is a total "guy movie". Almost the entire film takes
place in either the office or in a bar across the street. The
dialogue is snappy, the camera work is sharp and the characters dynamic. Anyone that's ever been stuck in a dead-end job will appreciate
Glengarry - the whiney co-workers (Harris and Arkin) and the boss you
just want to punch in the face (Spacey). It's fun to watch Shelley's
worn-out pitch against Ricky's "smooth-as-buttah" approach to sales,
not to mention seeing how they all work together when a "whale"
visits the office. And although the ending is kind of hackneyed,
this is a wonderful film. Having said
all that, let's review this DVD's feature set:
- Commentary by director James Foley
- Production notes
- Digitally remastered
- "A.B.C. (Always Be Closing)": an original documentary
tracing the psychological intersection of fictional and real life
salesman
- A Tribute to Jack Lemmon
- "J. Roy: New and Used Furniture" short
- Scenes with bonus audio commentary by Alec Baldwin,
cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia, Alan Arkin, and production designer
Jane Musky
- Clip archives from The Charlie Rose Show and
Inside the Actor's Studio
- Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats with
Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS sound.
- Number of discs: 2
The DVD
Although it seems like us Glengarry fans have been waiting
forever for this DVD, I can assure you that it has been a worthwhile
wait. Previously, Glengarry was available only on
pan-and-scan VHS. The transfer on this disc is excellent - the
picture is sharp and crisp, although some of the darker scenes tend to get
lost in "black level hell". There are no artifacts or other
blemishes that I can see. However, the first copy of this DVD I
purchased had a error on the disc, such that at exactly 8:05 into the
movie, my DVD player locked up! Hoping and praying that it was a
problem with my disc, I rushed back to Wally World and exchanged it for a
fresh copy that - thankfully - did not have a problem. I don't know
if this is a one-off issue or if a bad batch was released (a-la The Simpsons
First Season DVD box set), but if you buy a copy of the Glengarry DVD,
you ought to check yours as soon as you get home.
As you probably know, I never have hooked up the speakers to my home
theatre system. So I can't comment on the sound. However, many
of the DVD review sites have mentioned that the DTS track is excellent,
even given that Glengarry is a dialogue-based movie.
The
Extras As great as the film is, the "extras" on this "10th
Anniversary Edition" DVD are a bit lacking. Disc 1 contains the
widescreen version of the film with a standard commentary by James Foley. There's nothing particularly compelling or interesting about the
commentary, although it's always nice that it's there. Disc 2
contains the full-screen presentation of the film as well as the rest of
the extras. Most of the extras have nothing whatsoever to do with
Glengarry itself. While it's nice that they included a tribute
to Jack Lemmon and the "Always Be Closing" documentary, neither of these
have any connection to the film, aside from the fact that Lemmon is in the
movie and "Always Be Closing" is one of Baldwin's mantras. Same goes
with the "J. Roy" short. And clips from Charlie Rose and
Inside The Actor's Studio? Who cares! I suppose that I'm satisfied with this DVD. After
all, the film itself looks wonderful and with the release of Glengarry
I now have another VHS tape that I can throw away. But the lack
of compelling extras do take something away from the DVD. Because of
this, I give the Glengarry DVD a |
