YMMV / Glengarry Glen Ross

• Adaptation Displacement: The film is much better known than the original play. It's not particularly surprising given the differences in the medium, the All-Star Cast, and the general improvements David Mamet made in the film.
• Alternative Character Interpretation
  • How much does Roma really respect Shelley? He acts like he genuinely admires him, but the end of the play reveals that he's conning him, luring him into a "partnership" in which he (Roma) will get most of the earnings. This revelation is removed from the film, however, leaving Roma's motivations and attitude toward Shelley more ambiguous.
  • After being berated for several minutes by Shelley to give him the leads that are locked away, Williamson appears to give in as long as Shelley pays up front, which he is unable to do. Was Williamson really willing to be bribed by Shelley for the leads, or was he bluffing in the full knowledge Shelley didn't have the cash at hand?
  • Blake is theorized by many fans to be an actor hired by Mitch & Murray to motivate the office based on him claiming to be a hotshot who made nearly a million dollars last year and can make fifteen grand for himself with the Rio Rancho leads in only two hours despite no one having heard of him and flaunting signs of his success in a way even other hotshot salesman like Roma don't. It's notable that Roma, easily the most successful of the salesman, is not present for the speech as he would have not only not put up with Blake's abuse but could have easily called bullshit on any of Blake's claims or simply responded that he's never heard of him, shattering the illusion.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Blake never actually gives the main characters any real advice or instructions on how to make sales, just a bunch of vague platitudes and mantras, which (along with the fact that the main characters have clearly never heard of him, despite his supposedly being a legendarily successful salesman) is often used as support for the fan theory that Blake isn't actually a salesman at all, just an actor the company hired to deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech dressed up as a motivational talk. However, as many real-life salespeople will attest, many such talks really do consist of several hours' worth of cool-sounding but ultimately meaningless platitudes — Blake, real salesman or not, at least had the decency to keep his speech to just under ten minutes, even if most of it was abuse rather than encouragement — which bosses nonetheless expect to produce quick and substantial performance improvements.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The constant berating is nothing if not unique, which makes some of the insults stinging and hilarious, such as Roma's disdain for a certain Indian client named Patel as he states that he was so stubborn, not even the Hindu gods could get him to sign a deal.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "You don't say anything until you know where you are in the story." Kevin Spacey also should have heeded this advice when he tried to pivot the conversation of his years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse toward his coming out of the closet, much to the disgust of the gay community. Not helped by Roma's choice of insults toward Williamson which included "dick sucker" (to paraphrase) and "fairy" during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which certainly wouldn’t fly today sex scandal or not.
• Heartwarming Moments: Roma eagerly listening to Shelley describe his sale to Bruce and Harriet and being genuinely happy to see him break his streak of bad luck. While the play undercuts it by showing it as Roma buttering Shelley up to get in on his sales, the film shows that it's sincere respect and the two honestly like and respect one another with Roma praising Shelley for teaching him all he knows and even inviting him to lunch later to celebrate.
• Ho Yay: Roma's seduction of a customer isn't subtle.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Shelley "The Machine" Levene. In spite of the way we can see how sleazy he is by his sales tactics, he's such a sad sack with a sob story that we can't help but feel sorry for him.
  • Roma and Moss probably also count, since the former gets screwed out of a $6,000 deal thanks to Williamson and the latter gets implicated in the robbery by Levene.
• Memetic Mutation: Blake's scene, partly due to this rather infamous Cracked article. How effective the scene is at illustrating the article's point is up to the reader.
• Misaimed Fandom: Blake's scene is sometimes used as a motivational tool in workplaces. Of particular note is a Cracked article where author David Wong uses the scene to describe how one might become a "better person", as Wong argues that the world only cares about results. But David Mamet has openly said that he intended Blake's scene to show what was wrong with rampant capitalism and cutthroat sales tactics, as well as show the callous and dismissive attitudes of those at the top of the corporate ladder towards those lower down who have to live the consequences of their choices. People who use the scene as a motivational tool conveniently ignore that Blake's speech doesn't work; all it does is lead to the salesman making terrible decisions that make everything worse and is mostly empty "just do better!" mixed with abuse without actually telling them what to do. It also ignores the real issue, which is that the leads the salesmen were given genuinely are terrible, and they're unable to get ahead with them. Telling them "sell harder" and threatening their jobs doesn't inspire them to do better, it just makes them resort to desperate measures and makes things worse for everyone. It also doesn't include any grand, inspirational message about bringing value to the world as Pargin was speaking about in his article as the whole premise is that the salesman are cheating people out of their money by selling them terrible real estate and dressing it up as an invaluable opportunity.
• One-Scene Wonder: Blake's scene in which he completely berates the office staff for their failure to perform. Especially notable as it's original to the film adaptation.
• Signature Scene: Alec Baldwin's harsh outline of the stakes and efforts to pump up the salesman is easily the most well-known scene in the film.
• Tear Jerker: When Shelley shows at a lead's house to pitch a real estate deal, clearly ignoring the man's middle class house, and all of the polite implications the man makes that he has neither the interest nor the ability to buy real estate. The lead eventually asks Shelley to leave and as he closes the door, the expression on the salesman's face says it all - he's just lost his last chance to pay for his daughter's healthcare.

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