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YMMV / Glengarry Glen Ross

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  • 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?
  • 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 — 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.
  • 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. 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.
  • 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.

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