Movie Description
Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American drama film adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, and directed by James Foley. The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen, and their increasing desperation when the corporate office sends a motivational trainer to threaten them that all but the top two salesmen will be fired within two weeks.
The setting is never explicitly stated. The play is set in Mamet’s hometown Chicago, Illinois, but the film includes numerous references to New York City, including an establishing shot of a New York City Subway platform followed by a close-up shot of a New York Telephone-branded payphone, NYPD police cars and insignia, New York license plates, and mostly New York accents. Film critics and journalists have nonetheless placed the setting in Chicago, possibly based on their familiarity with the original play. Exterior shots were filmed on location in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Like the play, the film is notorious for its use of profanity, leading the cast to refer to the film jokingly as "Death of a Fuckin' Salesman". The title of the film comes from the names of two of the real estate developments being peddled by the salesmen characters: Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms.
The film was critically acclaimed and is widely considered one of the best films of 1992. The world premiere was held at the 49th Venice Film Festival, where Jack Lemmon was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Al Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Yet, the film was a box office failure for grossing $10.7 million in North America against a $12.5 million budget. It has since become a cult classic.