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9. Cadillacs Are for Closers
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9 Cadillacs Are for Closers You know what is free enterprise? [ . . .] The freedom [ . . . ] Of the Individual [ . . . ] To Embark on Any Fucking Course that he sees fit. [ . . . ] In order to secure his honest chance to make a profit. [ . . . ] Without this we’re just savage shitheads in the wilderness. [ . . . ] Sitting around some vicious campfire. —David Mamet, American Buffalo David Mamet has parlayed his success as a dramatist into a lucrative and vibrant career as a Hollywood screenwriter and film director. One of the best film versions of any of his plays, Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by James Foley with a screenplay by the playwright, resulted in a collaborative effort quite independent of the stage play that engendered it. Among an all-star cast featuring Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce, and Alec Baldwin , Jack Lemmon delivers a brilliant performance in the 1992 film as downand -out real estate salesman Shelley “The Machine” Levene working hard at Premiere Properties to save his job with a last big shot. That he and his associates try to sell worthless Florida swampland to unsuspecting buyers, eliding the line between capitalism and criminality, in no way diminishes the empathy one feels for Levene’s sad plight. Despite Lemmon’s portrayal of a petty, venal man, an audience might well root for his character to triumph anyway. Lemmon’s great acting enriches the film but also dilutes the poison in it that packs a wallop. Mamet’s characters typically do not tug at the audience’s emotions, but the filming of Lemmon’s heartbreaking performance creates a qualitatively different experience than the stage play of essentially the same material. A dishonest, manipulative, backbiting braggart, Shelley Levene is one of the least appealing characters in the play. Apart from Aaronow, who’s completely self-abandoned, Levene is also the least successful and is off the mark for the month’s competitive do-or-die sales contest to determine who wins the Cadillac and who loses his job. Richard Roma, played by Pacino in the film, is the most likable, but then he can afford to be: he sits atop the leaderboard. Still, in the movie, Jack Lemmon, more than any of the other actors including Pacino, draws the most focus. For one thing, Lemmon (1925–2001) played in the twilight of his long and illustrious career when he made Glengarry, and he brought all of his other performances to bear on the plum role of Levene. I don’t claim Levene as one of his best performances; it may be, but when I evaluate his per- 118 / Chapter 9 formance as Levene I also see the star of Mister Roberts, The Apartment, and Save the Tiger. The most endearing aspects of his performance combine intense vulnerability and dogged indefatigability. He absorbs blow after blow yet somehow keeps pushing forward with a new sales pitch, confident that he can turn each “no” into a “yes” and reverse his relentless streak of bad luck. He keeps striving even in the face of professional humiliation and, finally, absolute guilt. He doesn’t sag until his chief adversary, office manager Williamson (Kevin Spacey), explains his reason for turning him in to the police: “Because I don’t like you.” In spite of everything, I do like him, and it hurts to watch what happens to his character in the movie. Far more than the play, the film version builds up Levene’s part and provides information wholly lacking in the drama. The film opens with Levene talking on the telephone to his daughter, who is evidently in the hospital and in need of an expensive operation. A subsequent call implies that the procedure has been canceled due to lack of funds. This circumstance, which is barely alluded to in the play, adds pressure on Levene to earn his commission or to come up with the money by any means necessary. Unlike the play, too, the film shows Levene and his coworkers making several sales calls to customers. The losing propositions of each prospective sale heap added sympathies upon all the salesmen. In one scene in the film, the audience even sees Levene make a house call, a “sit” in salesman jargon, in which the goal is to get inside the house, establish rapport and trust with the customer, sit down for a discussion, and close the deal with a signature on the bottom line. In the movie, Levene visits Mr. Spannel, a young thirty- or...