The 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross is based on the 1982 play written by David Mamet. The play shows parts of two days of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who will engage in any unscrupulous or illegal acts to sell junk real estate interests to ignorant buyers. Apparently the play is in part built on Mamet’s own experience when he was employed in a Chicago real estate office in the late 1960’s. The title of both the film and the play comes from the names of two of the real estate ventures being hawked by the salesmen, Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms. The film, like the play, is infamous for its use of profanity and, according to actor Ed Harris, led to the cast renaming the movie “Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman.”
In the film the salesmen become shell shocked when corporate sends a “motivator” (Alec Baldwin) to announce that, in one week, all except the top two salesmen will be fired. The top two salesmen will keep their jobs: first place gets a Cadillac and second place gets a set of steak knives. Though Baldwin would have “fired their asses because a loser is a loser.” Baldwin’s “motivating speech” is, in my opinion, one of the greatest scenes in film history and almost won Baldwin an Oscar.
The movie has a star studded cast: Jack Lemmon as Shelley “The Machine” Levene; Al Pacino as Ricky Roma, the most successful salesman in the office; Ed Harris as Dave Moss, a loser loudmouth salesman; Kevin Spacey as John Williamson, a milquetoast insignificant, mealy-mouthed office manager; Alan Arkin as George Aaronow: playing the aging salesman with no self-confidence; and of course Alec Baldwin as Blake the corporate “motivator.” The film had a thin budget of 12 million dollars but still managed to lose money—grossing only 10 million.
Having read several David Mamet plays, I am of the opinion that once you’ve seen/read one of his plays/films you have seen/read them all. Many of you high falutin’ literati types who drool over every Mamet play will obviously disagree with me but I stand by my statement: once you’ve seen one Mamet play you’ve seen them all. Every Mamet play is based on the same plotline: a greedy average guy (or gal in the case of Oleanna) shows his or her utter lack of ethics. These characters aren’t the larger than life kind of evil that we get from Darth Vader – in fact, they aren’t even truly evil – they are simply selfish jerks who would step over their own mothers to get ahead. How many times do you need to see that? Maybe you literary droolers, who love nothing more than a chance to get depressed while snarfing popcorn, enjoy watching humans crawl through their own filth, but personally I’d rather see something at least different. And for once I think American audiences agreed. A holier-than-thou type will watch a movie like Glengarry Glen Ross and think, “I’m so much better than that – and not only that, but I must be pretty intelligent to appreciate a downer like this!” But a compassionate and caring person will think, “there but for the grace of God go I – and I just hope I don’t end up there someday too.”
My friends and many of our site’s regular contributors have complimented me for predicting the Oscars more accurately than most accomplished professional pundits. I am no genius or clairvoyant but as I wrote earlier, there was a method to the madness, an absolute science at work.
All I needed to know was the lobbyist and the name that popped up was Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein is no Howard Hughes. But he knows and abides by one single law of Hollywood Inc. The runner up is a loser that everyone remembers and Weinstein is no loser. In 1998 he singlehandedly took a little remembered movie, Shakespeare in Love, to Oscar glory beating (check this out) Saving Private Ryan, one of the most realistic war dramas ever produced.
When I learned that he is personally in charge of King’s Speech, The Fighter’s supporting cast and Natalie Portman, I knew the rest didn’t stand a prayer except for categories where he had no vested interest.
Person had commented that they have a new voting system. Yes, it is a fair system where you rank the nominees, so technically you can have a 2nd best nominee win if the number 1 nominee gets a significant number of lower rankings at the same time. In other words, if you vilify the favorite nominee, you can still have the second best nominee win. It sounds outrageous and improbable. Who would go to such lengths for a trophy that has lost its sheen?
Except that is exactly what happened. Serious movies were ignored to satisfy a company’s lust for ill-deserved prestige. In Hollywood, money doesn’t just talk, it screams – at times, obscenely.
Quentin Tarantino, meet Hiroyuki Nakano. Oh, wait a minute. Sorry, my mistake. You’ve already met. Well, can I introduce you to Kinji Fukasaku? Oh, sorry, that’s right. You’ve met him too. In fact, Quentin, you know almost everyone in this room, don’t you? Ah well, go and mingle. But just so you know, your cat is out of the bag now. You’ve been mining Asian movies for ideas for years, haven’t you? Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
As for the rest of you Tarantino fans out there, if you haven’t done so already, meet Samurai Fiction – a delight of a movie rivaled only by Kurusawa’s Sanjuro. Nobody could doubt the absolute awesomeness of a good Japanese martial arts flick – but likewise, nobody watching one could doubt that these samurai seriously need to chill out and take a five minute break. Well, Kurusawa in Sanjuro and Nakano in Samurai Fiction give us that break, poking a little fun at samurai seriousness while not denying us our martial movement fix for the day. Evidently Tarantino was as delighted as the rest of us by these and other great Asian martial arts films – and he plagiarizes them – oops, I mean pays homage to them – shamelessly.
Samurai Fiction’s opening titles, in which samurai performing kata are silhouetted against a red background, were in turn satirized in blue & black in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1. Also, Tarantino used Hotei’s famous instrumental track “Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai” (“Battle Without Honor or Humanity” – the title of a classic yakuza movie by Kinji Fukasaku, a major influence on Tarantino) as background music for Kill Bill Vol. 1. Hotei played Kazamatsuri in Samurai Fiction and composed its soundtrack.
Tarantino admits that he gets his ideas from old movies mainly Asian and anyone with any knowledge of both movies would see that Tarantino takes names, significant parts of stories and other elements from Asian cinema. When asked about plagiarizing ideas from other movies, he stated, “I lift ideas from other great films just like every other great filmmaker.” Is that why the ear-cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs was STOLEN from Django? Or why one of the fighting scenes in Kill Bill Vol. 1 is basically an exact copy of a scene from Samurai Fiction? Those are more than some pretty big ideas.
That said, let’s get down to business. The film was directed by Hiroyuki Nakano and it is almost entirely black-and-white, and follows a fairly standard plotline for a comedy and jidaigeki samurai film, but the presence of Tomoyasu Hotei’s rock-and-roll soundtrack separates it from the films it was inspired by, such as the works of Akira Kurosawa. A loose spinoff was released in 2001, as Red Shadow.
While the film is nearly entirely in black-and-white, paying homage to older samurai movies, this allows for the artistic and dramatic use of color; this is most noticeable whenever a character is killed, and the screen flashes red for a moment. Color is used to dramatic effect at the beginning and end of the film as well to focus the audience in what they are watching.
The plot centers on Inukai Heishiro (Fukikoshi Mitsuru), the son of a clan officer. One of his clan’s most precious heirlooms, a sword given them by the Shogun, has been stolen by the samurai Kazamatsuri (Tomoyasu Hotei). Against his father’s advice, Heishiro insists on retrieving the sword himself. His father sends two ninja after him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.
Kazamatsuri wounds Heishiro, and kills one of his companions. The young noble ends up staying with an older samurai (Morio Kazama) and his daughter Koharu (Tamaki Ogawa) while he heals from his wound and plans his next move. The older samurai tries to dissuade him from fighting, but Heishiro’s honor won’t allow him to leave Kazamatsuri alive. The older samurai, who turns out to be the master Hanbei Mizogushi, convinces him to fight Kazamatsuri by throwing rocks rather than with swords.
Meanwhile Kazamatsuri settles for a few days at a gambling house owned by Lady Okatsu (Mari Atsuki), who falls in love with him. Then one night one of the ninja sent to protect Heishiro bribes her to poison his sake for one thousand gold. She does, but Kazamatsuri tastes the poison and kills Okatsu. He then kidnaps Koharu in an attempt to get the master Mizoguchi to fight him.
Mizoguchi reveals to Heishiro that he killed Koharu’s father, and has since never drawn his sword on another man, despite his immense skill. They then go to find Kazamatsuri and rescue Koharu. While Mizoguchi stalls Kazamatsuri, Heishiro takes Koharu aside and says he will marry her if Mizoguchi wins. Kazamatsuri fights Mizoguchi, who only draws his sword after his opponent destroys his wooden sword. He then disarms Kazamatsuri near a cliff. Kazamatsuri, admitting defeat, commits suicide by jumping off the cliff. Heishiro and the others go to the bottom, where there is no sign of Kazamatsuri’s body, but Koharu spots the stolen sword at the bottom of the river, where Heishiro retrieves it.
Flash forward one year. Heishiro has married Koharu, the sword is restored, and Mizoguchi is now an official in Heishiro’s clan.
The film has a number of inside jokes and allusions. For example, the stolen sword that is at the center of the plot was a personal possession of Toshirō Mifune, the star of many of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. One of Heishiro’s closest friends is named Kurosawa.
Between the rock and roll background and Hotei’s portrayal of Kazamatsuri’s cool disdain for the skills of the bumbling samurai who pursue him, it’s impossible not to become lost in admiration at Hotei’s ability to slide effortlessly and apparently in a state of total relaxation, from noncombat to combat situations — for example, when he is confronted by young Heishiro and his companions, Hotei as Kazamatsuri is so unconcerned by their presence that he turns coolly away to take a leak by the side of the road before responding to their taunts and challenges.
So, Tarantino fans, and those who think American cinema is the cat’s ass, why don’t you smell an Asian one? Why do I watch so many Asian movies? Apparently what I’m really doing is watching the future of American moviemaking, since American directors are so bankrupt of ideas that they have no recourse but to follow foreign filmmakers meekly as they lead them around by the nose.
Heathers is one of only a handful of 1980’s teen movies that was in some way not written, directed, produced or in some way connected to John Hughes (creator of the “Brat Pack”). Instead, Heathers was directed by Michael Lehmann, also the director of Hudson Hawk, 40 days and 40 nights and the Truth About Cats and Dogs. Heathers stars a young (pre-shoplifting) Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty.
The film portrays four girls in an elite clique at a fictional Ohio high school. The girls — three of whom are named Heather — rule the school through coercion, contempt, and sex appeal. Seventeen year old Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder), is one of the more popular girls at a fictional Ohio high school. In addition to Veronica, the Heathers are wealthy and beautiful (but deeply unhappy) girls: the cruel leader of the trio, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker); the timid Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty); and the spineless cheerleader Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk). The three wicked girls rule the school through brutality and emotional sadism. Although they are the most “popular” students, they are feared and hated rather than adored, and Veronica has had enough of their shallow, vicious behavior and longs to return to her old life, where she was happy with her former friends.
Enter new student J.D. (Christian Slater), a rebellious and self-styled outsider who opens with pulling a gun on two school bullies Kurt and Ram and fires blanks at them. Naturally, Veronica finds herself captivated with him. In an act of revenge for a slight at a frat party, Veronica and J.D. break into Heather Chandler’s mansion and facetiously prepare a cup full of drain cleaner to bring Heather as her morning wake-up drink. Veronica decides on milk and orange juice as a suitable form of revenge, as the combination can induce vomiting, but J.D. distracts her with a kiss and she takes the wrong cup to Heather. Though J.D. notices the mistake, he does not inform Veronica and Heather Chandler drinks the drain cleaner and dies. J.D. reminds Veronica that she has the ability to forge handwriting and protect herself from suspicion and forge a suicide note in the deceased handwriting. The school takes Heather Chandler’s “suicide” as a dramatic, but cool, decision made by the popular yet troubled teen. Another one of the Heathers soon steps into the lead and begins wearing the red scrunchie that had belonged to Chandler.
The two “jocks” that J.D. shocked by firing blanks at them become the next targets because they have spread false rumors about Veronica. J.D. devises a plan to kill the two jerks and he will then plant “gay” materials on them, including a candy dish, mascara, a postcard of Joan Crawford, gay porn, mineral water, and a suicide note stating the two were lovers participating in a suicide pact. At their funeral, a one of the fathers is seen crying, “My son’s a homosexual, and I love him. I love my dead gay son!”, and the boys become martyrs against homophobia.
The body count continues to rise as the movie unfolds. In the end Ryder not only stops J.D. from blowing up the school but also stops Heather from continuing her unrelenting stranglehold on the students.
The movie lost money at the box office, but is now on many “Top Lists” as a “Cult Classic.” I am on the fence with this one. There are just as many good scenes are there are bad clichés. To be sure, the Heathers are diabolical, cruel creatures who get what’s coming to them. J.D. seems to embody what many high school students would like to do (and have done) to some of their classmates and the whole high school culture. All in all Heathers is not a bad movie, having some great qualities, but also some irritating parts as well. Take a look at it — you won’t want your two hours back.
We just posted Dr. H’s picks for the Oscars–what are yours? If you get more right than Dr. H–you will win dvd’s of your choice delivered right to your home. Put your picks in a comment and good luck!
J.P.'s I'm Outta Here Movie Thoughts 