Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Academic

I was watching Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), a movie that's held up pretty well.  It's fairly faithful to the play, as you might expect, since David Mamet adapted his own work.

The biggest change is Alec Baldwin's character, who comes in at the beginning to explain that whoever sells the most real estate gets a car, and whoever sells the least is fired.  It's a highlight of the film, but the character doesn't exist in the play, where the contest is only mentioned in the program. (I think Mamet should update his play to add this scene, but I guess he figures the original version won a Pulitzer, so why mess with it?)

Anyway, while watching, I was thinking has any cast ever been filled with so many Oscar winners and nominees (not necessarily at the time, but looked at from today)? To demonstrate, here are the actors who play the main characters, along with their awards:

Alan Arkin: one Oscar, four nominations

Alec Baldwin: one Oscar nomination (and he's won some Emmys)

Ed Harris: four Oscar nominations

Jack Lemmon: two Oscars, eight nominations

Al Pacino: One Oscar and eight nominations, including one for this film

Jonathan Pryce: no Oscar nominations (but he has won a couple Tonys)

Kevin Spacey: two Oscars

Perhaps there have been more Oscar nominees in some films, but never this high a concentration. The Oscar-to-leads ratio is off the charts.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK I haven't seen the film for like 15-20 years but I remember it pretty well. Will anyone under 40 get that people once talked like this (maybe a less cartoonish version ) and it was considered normal? Maybe if they watched old movies. The Glengarry characters were modern creatures of their time (80s?) but talk like they grew up watching old World War two movies and westerns). Say, bigshot, what's your problem?

6:08 AM, October 19, 2016  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even in its day, the Mamet dialogue was a highly stylized version of how people talk.

7:03 AM, October 19, 2016  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stylized yes but the tough guy attitude is I think more emblematic of the time

10:50 AM, October 19, 2016  
Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

You mean pajama boy doesn't talk like this when he's pushing Obamacare?

2:57 PM, October 19, 2016  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes Glengarry Glen Ross play was clearly all about Obamacare. Did I see you in MSNBC's Columbus Ohio debate night focus group last might?

7:04 AM, October 20, 2016  

Post a Comment

<< Home

web page hit counter