Glengarry Glen Ross (MRA Ent) (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Biographies-Cast Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	96:15 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Foley
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Jack Lemmon Al Pacino Ed Harris Alan Arkin Kevin Spacey Alec Baldwin Jonathan Pryce Bruce Altman Jude Ciccolella Paul Butler Lori Tan Chinn Neal Jones Barry Rossen
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	James Newton Howard

First Prize: A Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize: A set of steak knives. Third prize: You are fired.

    David Mamet's mysteriously titled play Glengarry Glen Ross feels like a stage play at all times in this big screen incarnation. That should not put you off watching this masterful work however - it is simply too good to miss, and most people would never see it if it remained solely on the stage. This film features a stellar ensemble cast with some truly bravura acting performances. With a line-up including Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino, Ed Harris and veteran Jack Lemmon you would be correct in assuming that the quality of the source material on offer must be very high indeed.

    The film takes place by and large within the confines of a single set - the offices of real estate firm Premiere Properties. When the eternally unseen owners Mitch and Murray send in hard-nosed sales whiz Blake (Alec Baldwin), their intentions are made crystal clear - close the sales or hit the sidewalk. The denizens of the office are forced to ever more desperate measures to try and secure their jobs. Selling land in Florida to people who can ill afford it is by no means easy - but they will use whatever means necessary to close the deal.

    Shelley "The Machine" Levene (Lemmon) is a fading former sales legend, who taught smooth-talking Ricky Roma (Pacino) all he knows about the sell. Dave Moss (Harris), resentful of the increasing pressure to make a deal is threatening to turn to a competing agency whilst George (Alan Arkin) is increasingly convinced that he is in the wrong profession, unable to cope with the high-pressure sales environment. The leads - people who may (or more often, may not) wish to buy land - are handed out superciliously by the cold and superior office manager Williamson (Spacey). The quality of these leads is key to the probability of making a sale - and getting your name on the all-important blackboard which means employment for another month. Unfortunately, the quality of the leads is declining, with old, previously discarded prospects resurfacing with increasing regularity.

    Blake delivers a stack of five hundred cards bearing the names of the Glengarry leads. These top-notch prospects, however, will only be handed out to "winners" - the men who can prove that they are following the ABC of real estate sales - Always Be Closing. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and within the day the Glengarry leads are stolen from Williamson's office. When the police are called in to investigate the theft, the salesmen run the gamut of emotions - fear, paranoia, desperation and anger - as they are interrogated to identify the perpetrator.

    Al Pacino garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance, but the work of Lemmon or Harris would have been equally deserving. It comes as absolutely no surprise to learn that Mamet was awarded a Pulitzer prize in Drama for the original play. For fans of grown-up character-driven film this is a rare treat. There are no explosions, no car chases and no CGI effects on offer here. What you do get, however, is an exemplary character-driven piece of work that exposes the desperation and frustration of a group of men with clinical precision. One word of warning - as is expected from David Mamet, the number of expletives in this film is huge - barely a dialogue passes without some quite extreme swearing. Nevertheless this is a seminal piece of work.

Video

    The overall video transfer of this film is rather good.

    The movie is unfortunately presented in a Pan & Scan aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is nothing like the original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio.

    Grain and pixelization of backgrounds is only mildly evident on occasion and in general the transfer is wonderfully sharp - particularly the interior sets.

    Black levels are deep and solid with no low level noise. Shadow detail is fine throughout. Colours are solidly rendered, clean and occasionally quite vivid (the neon lighting for example). Skin tones look natural throughout.

    The transfer has no major MPEG artefacts. There is some aliasing present on occasion - primarily from the usual suspects of Venetian blinds and the edges of desks and books. Edge enhancement does become apparent (as a halo around furniture and dark clothing) at times but is never really annoying.

    There are some minor film artefacts which crop up occasionally, but they are never enough to spoil the transfer.

    Sadly for hearing impaired viewers, there are no subtitle tracks available.

    This is a single sided single layered (DVD 5) disc, so there is no layer change present.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is perfectly serviceable.

    There is a single audio track which is presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded at a healthy 448 kbps. There are no major defects in the way of pops or dropouts and I was not troubled by any significant lapses in audio sync.

    Original music is credited to the highly accomplished James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, Vertical Limit) and is a timeless, jazzy affair that moulds itself perfectly around the dialogue, without ever becoming intrusive. Being so heavily dialogue-driven, and being based on a stage play there is little opportunity to use music in the film, but what little there is forms a subtle and well-suited package.

    Particularly with Pro Logic II enabled, the soundstage is mildly enveloping at times. In the early stages of the film there is a heavy rainfall and this fills the soundstage quite atmospherically. The front speakers do the bulk of the work and transfer the dialogue cleanly enough. There is a good degree of separation across the front speakers with some cross-soundstage panning.

    The surround channels carry the musical score and some ambience such as the aforementioned rainfall, but this is a heavily dialogue driven film so little is required from the effects speakers. The subwoofer does provide some support for the musical score - particularly the jazzy double bass, but is never really called on to do a great deal. This is not surprising given the nature of the feature.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are sadly limited.

Menu

    The main menu is a silent and static photograph of Baldwin and Spacey. It allows the options of playing the feature, selecting one of a slight eleven chapter stops, playing the theatrical trailer or accessing the Biographies section.

Theatrical Trailer

    Running for 1:15 and presented not 16x9 enhanced at 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track encoded at 448 kbps. It sets the tone of the film superbly with Baldwin's rousing monologue and a set of swinging brass balls!

Biographies

    Several informative text-based pages covering the life and work of Pacino, Lemmon, Baldwin, Arkin, Harris and Spacey accompanied by the atmospheric theme music.

    The Region 1 (Special Edition) two-disc release leaves this Region 4 release without a hope of closing the sale, and is head and shoulders the better option.

    The Region 4 release misses out on:

• Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 widescreen transfer
• dts audio transfer
• Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer
• Audio Commentary from director James Foley
• Documentary Magic Time: A Tribute to Jack Lemmon - running for thirty minutes
• Audio Commentary from Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, cinematographer and production designer
• Documentary ABC: Always be Closing - running for thirty minutes
• Featurette J. Roy New and Used Furniture - running for ten minutes
• Featurette The Charlie Rose Show - running for ten minutes
• Featurette The Actors Studio with Kevin Spacey - running for two minutes
• Production Notes

    Glengarry Glen Ross is an outstanding piece of work. The ensemble cast deliver powerhouse performances, not least the work of Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon. The fevered desperation of the men is palpable. The pathos of Shelley Levene is heartbreaking. The spin from Ricky Ross is dazzling. The tension around the police investigation will have your stomach in knots. For grown-ups looking for a grown-up movie, this cannot be beaten. Thoroughly recommended, although fans will prefer to purchase the far superior Region 1 Special edition package.

    The video transfer is technically of a high quality - it's just a shame about the aspect ratio.

    The audio transfer does its job with no fuss or flash.

    Extra features are sadly limited. Fans need the Region 1 Special Edition.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall