[Borges]

If anyone hasn’t seen the 1992 film version of Mamet’s ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ please do. It’s breathtaking.

[AU72]

Mamet’s ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

Especially Alec Baldwin's sales meeting from Hell.

[max americana]

Everyone knows that, including Wag the Dog.

But try SPARTAN, with Val Kilmer. Mamey befriended in real-life, one of the founders of Delta Force, and that’s what Kilmer played.

The irony? It’s about a president who tried to have his own daughter kidnapped and left for dead because at the same time, the president in a re-election year was having sex with his other girlfriends in Boston. So basically, it was all fakery...(like Clinton and obama)

Kilmer plays the Delta guy who saves the daughter because he knew it was the right thing to do, even though the president was an a-hole.

[jeltz25]

Best dialogue of any film ever. Always be closing. Some great con artist movies as well in House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner. Wrote the movie version of The Untouchables. Wrote the script of that DeNiro movie Ronin where he, Jean Reno and some other guys are gangsters in France with a briefcase and the mafia is after them. A great chase movie. Wrote the script of the Paul Newman classic The Verdict. Even a decent terrorism movie with Val Kilmer where the President's daughter is kidnapped. Some great quotes in the story: Before long, when Finley didn’t budge, the books from Mamet stopped arriving, and Finley asked if he could send Mamet some books too. One of the first was A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution. In it Sowell expands on the difference between the “constrained vision” of human nature—close to the tragic view that infuses Mamet’s greatest plays—and the “unconstrained vision” of man’s endless improvement that suffused Mamet’s politics and the politics of his profession and social class. “He came back to me stunned. He said, ‘This is incredible!’ He said, ‘Who thinks like this? Who are these people?’ I said, ‘Republicans think like this.’ He said, ‘Amazing.’ ” Interestingly, Gov Palin mentioned that same Sowell book in Going Rogue and used it as an example of what conservatism is and what she believes. Now, whether she actually read the whole book or someone just told her it would be good to name drop, who knows? But she still mentioned it and interesting to see Mamet mention it as influencing him. Also this one: “And he was right,” Mamet said. “It had a huge effect on me. Forcing yourself into a new way of thinking about things is a wrenching experience. But first you have to look back and atone. You think, ‘Oh my god, what have I done? What was I thinking?’ In talking about Witness. But I was reminded of the Talking Heads song "Once In a Lifetime". "And you may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife. You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?" Good story to read though.

[AustralianConservative]

Thanks for the tip.

[RussP]

“If anyone hasn’t seen the 1992 film version of Mamet’s ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ please do. It’s breathtaking.”

Yeah, I want my son to watch it. I’ll tell him that’s what life is like if you don’t get a good education.