DVD standard features : 2 disc set (widescreen, full screen); DTS Digital Surround Sound; 2.0/5.1 Dolby Digital, digitally remastered, interactive menus, English, Spanish subtitles
DVD special features: A.B.C. (Always Be Closing): An original documentary tracing the psychological intersection of fictional and real life salesmen; tribute to Jack Lemmon; interviews; audio commentary; production notes; cast and crew biographies

Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002

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Before y'all get comfortable in that easy chair with your remotes in one hand and bowls of popcorn in the other, I should warn you that this film doesn't depict any sex, gratuitous or otherwise. In fact, there's rarely a dame seen in it. There's no violence or action, either. There's lots and lots of dialogue, though. Nothing gets blown up (except a temper or two) and...hey, where're you goin'? Hmmm. Ok, now that the Instant Gratificationists are gone, let me tell you a lil' sum'n sum'n about the joy that is the Glengarry Glen Ross 10th Anniversary DVD. THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) The inhabitants of Glengarry Glen Ross are sellers of questionably-valued real estate, for whom life has given the great beatdown - and they're finding it very hard to get back up. Though a couple - like the glib but empty Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) and hard-nosed success story Blake (Alec Baldwin) - have managed to tenuously grab hold of the brass ring, the others have had failure and disappointment poured down on them like so much rain. For those men - old school salesman Shelley "The Machine" Levene (Jack Lemmon), the blustery and belligerent Dave Moss (Ed Harris), timid George Aaronow (Alan Arkin), and put-upon office manager John Williamson (Kevin Spacey) - Blake's arrival in their sales office spells doom and gloom. Second place in an all-or-nothing sales contest is not a real option for this group of salesmen: it's do-or-die time for them. No room for losers; you're either a Closer, or you hit the bricks. THE UPSHOT Be forewarned: sex-, violence-, and action-free though it may be, Glengarry Glen Ross includes more than its fair share of angry men cursing their asses off. Face it: these fellas could make a sailor blush. It never ceases to amaze me that the Bravo cable TV network even bothers to air this movie. Sure, many of the Glengarry Glen Ross stars have been on the entertaining and informative Bravo series, Inside The Actors Studio. But by the time this movie is chopped up...I mean, "edited for content" enough that it can be shown on Bravo, you wonder what the hell is the point? But Glengarry Glen Ross is much, much more than a bunch of rain-and-anger-drenched White guys standing around cussin'. Yes indeed; the brilliant Glengarry actors (and equally brilliant writer) raise Righteous Indignation to an art form. This was the vital Al Pacino I spoke of having missed so dearly, in my Any Given Sunday and Simone reviews. Had Pacino won his Oscar® for this role instead of the malodorous dreck that was Scent Of A Woman, I doubt that you would've heard that collective "he got it for WHAT?!?" that rose up on Oscar® Night. And I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I saw Glengarry, because until this movie, I'd never seen - or heard - the late great Jack Lemmon in quite that form. Given past comic performances in films like Some Like It Hot, The Odd Couple, and The Great Race, I never imagined Lemmon even knew some of those cuss words, let alone be able to speak them. That the audience cared for the rather loathsome Levene (much to Lemmon's dismay, according to an interview included in this DVD set), speaks volumes to the real treasure we lost when Jack Lemmon died. Not that Pacino and Lemmon's co-stars were slackers. I've long loved journeyman actor Ed Harris, and he's at his gruff talking best here in Glengarry. Kevin Spacey was also good, though I had a hard time watching him interact with Lemmon as he did; for some reason, I kept seeing Spacey the actor, not his character. I didn't much care for Alan Arkin's George (maybe because of the whiny nature of that character). But I gained a higher level of appreciation for Alec Baldwin's acting skills, due to his bravura performance in this film. As Baldwin said of his character, in his DVD commentary, Blake was "such an asshole!". As if all that wasn't enough, the extraordinary writer David Mamet (whose work I didn't really take notice of until Heist, which made me look for signs of him elsewhere) transformed his play into this play-on-film, which much to Mamet's credit, the actors all took strides to present as written. Though I wouldn't want to hear people speak like that every day (hell, I don't think I'd want to even know these men on a daily basis!), I never tire of listening to the well-scripted and -acted interactions of these few lost souls. DVD THINGIES Like the film itself, the Glengarry Glen Ross 10th Anniversary DVD doesn't have the techie bells and whistles some of its less talky, more action-y counterparts might have. But lovers of the movie itself should come away fairly happy from the experience of watching this two-disc set. Along with the expected commentary from director James Foley, are some special features that range from being directly related to the film itself, to tributes to some of the actors and characters within it. My favorites among these are the tribute to Jack Lemmon ("Magic Time"), which includes bits with Lemmon's son Chris; the A.B.C. (Always Be Closing) documentary on the life of real salesmen; and the funny commentary by Baldwin. Best of all for me were two brief clips: one with Kevin Spacey on Inside The Actors Studio that I had seen in the past, and the other, a new-to-me interview with Jack Lemmon on The Charlie Rose Show. The topper, though, came from the "Magic Time" tribute, when James Lipton asked Lemmon the infamous Inside The Actors Studio Questionnaire. I was in tears...for more reasons than one. BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE If you've only seen Glengarry Glen Ross watered down for public consumption on broadcast TV, you owe it to yourself to grab the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD set, to see Glengarry in its full glory. Even if you've seen it in its unedited state, the DVD extras make this 10th Anniversary Edition more than worth its price. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS 10th ANNIVERSARY DVD:   back to top And that's the way I see it. Rose "Bams" Cooper 3BlackChicks Review™ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com    ICQ: 7760005 http://www.3blackchicks.com/