Glengarry Glen Ross - Essay Example

Glengarry Glen Ross Introduction Glengarry Glen Ross is an American film which has been released in year 1992. It is a drama film which is based on a play with a same name which was written by David Mamet. The screenplay for this drama is also written by David Mamet, and it has been directed by James Foley (Ebert, 1992). The main cast of this film includes several prominent artists including Al Pacino as Ricky Roma, Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene, Alan Arkin as George Aaronow, Kevin Spacey as John Williamson, Alec Baldwin as Blake, Ed Harris as Dave Moss, Jonathan Pryce as James Lingk, Jude Ciccolella as Detective and Bruce Altman as Larry Spannel. Jack Lemmon was awarded the Volpi Cup for the best actor on the basis of his acting in this film, even though this film did not make its mark as a commercially successful film (IMDb, 2013). This film is a depiction of two days in the lives of four salesmen who belongs to the real estate business industry. The corporate office acquires and sends a trainer to increase the level of motivation among the four salesmen. The trainer delivers immensely harsh speech along with tough targets for all of the four in order to remain employed. The whole story is related to the strife of four salesmen to remain employed in their office. The tagline of this film suggests that it is the story of every individual who works for a living (Rovi, 2013). The gigantic forces of politics and power are intrinsically present in this film. This paper is focused on the analysis of the first scene of the film and its association with the power which each character contains. It also presents the description of the scene along with the selection of Williamson as the most powerful character in the scene among all of the other characters. Synopsis The first scene of this film discloses the whole direction of the film, except for the climax, from where the strife of salesmen begins. The film begins with Shelley Levene (a real estate salesman) in a phone booth, struggling to contact the doctor who is dealing with his daughter. The booth next to him becomes occupied by Dave Moss trying to attempt a property sale in Rio Rancho Estates. This happens in a Chinese restaurant located in Chicago. Both men come out of the phone booths and make their way to the men’s restroom with tensed behavioral features. Both men start to complain about the types of leads which were given to them by their company with each other (Ebert, 1992). They exit the restroom where Ricky Roma tends to make a successful sale of real estate to a client at the bar, followed by the return of both men in their office where they confront an excitable company representative. The representative is an arrogant businessman named Blake, sent by the owners of the company to motivate the salesmen. Surprisingly, Blake starts to talk trash with each salesman regarding their poor performance in the past and announces a contest among all four salesmen (Brantley, 2012). The proposed contest contains the prize for the best selling salesman in the form of a Cadillac and also proposes that the least selling salesman will be fired from this office. This gives a shock to all three present salesmen on which they complain about the poor leads which they have been getting from their company. On this point, Blake announces about some premium leads for sales which will only be given to the best performing salesman (IMDb, 2013). As the new representative puts every salesman in a struggling strive, Shelley meets the boss of their office (Mr. Williamson) regarding the premium leads which are being kept by him. Shelley asks Williamson to provide him with premium leads by which Shelley can get back on his previous record of being a successful salesman. Shelley tries to bribe Williamson of 10 percent of his profit from the premium leads, after attempting several techniques to persuade him. The vulnerable situation of Shelley provides an opportunity to Williamson for taking an advantage from him (Ebert, 1992). Williamson offers Shelley to acquire the premium leads on the prize of fifty dollars each along with twenty percent of the profit which he will make from those leads. Shelley gets disturbingly agreed upon the offer, but he fails to get the premium leads due to the shortage of cash in his pockets. Shelley, then, tries to acquire a second level lead by asking it from Williamson, but he refuses. The scene ends as Shelley gets out of Williamson’s car with the burden of failure on his shoulders (Rovi, 2013). Characters The main characters in the first scene include Shelley Levene, Dave Moss, Blake and Mr. Williamson. Shelley is an elderly man whose character has been portrayed as a highly dependent individual on his job (IMDb, 2013). He is filled with several critical economic problems from which the most important problem is his sick daughter. From the begging of this drama film, the character of Shelley has been exhibited as a face of failure who also acquires problems which make his previous problems more substantial. Shelley has been an excellent salesman in his pat professional life, but his charisma has become infected with failure and bad luck. On the other hand, Moss is also an elderly man and responds to the contest not in the form of desperation for victory; instead, he becomes agitated. He does not show his prominence in the first scene of the film (Ebert, 1992). Mr. Williamson is the employer of the company who delivers order which he collects from the owners of the company to the salesmen at the office. He is least liked by all of the four salesmen due to his absence of concern in their personal and professional difficulties. Williamson is also an employee of the company whose living is also dependent upon his professional earnings (Ebert, 1992). It defines the disregard of Williamson from the concerns of salesmen in the office. Blake is a successful businessman sent by the owners of the company to motivate employees and he contains a rigid and harsh personality. He acquires the use of abusive speech to threat, rather motivate, the salesmen for their poor performance in the past. He is portrayed as an authority figure in the film (Rovi, 2013). Prominence of Power in Characters In the first scene of the film, the power cannot be attributed to the character of Shelley because he is portrayed as a highly dependent yet unsuccessful salesman in the present. The quality of charisma can be associated with Shelley, but his present situation of failure overshadows his previous records of professional success (Wrong, 1995). His ability to persuade people using speech has become insignificant which can be identified by his conversation with Williamson. Shelley utilizes to utilize his personal power to persuade Williamson, he fails to attain his desired goal which is illegitimate (Buchanan & Badham, 2008). There is another character which can be considered as the prominent symbol of authority. That character is of Blake who demonstrates his authoritative power in the form of contest. The power, which is attributed to Blake, is entirely comprised of the power of his position. He is portrayed as an independent and economically sustained individual who is contained with the authority awarded to him by the owners of the company (Pfeffer, 1992). Blake acquires the strategy of organizational politics to increase the probability of meeting the desired revenues by the company (Kotter, 1982). The character of Williamson is significantly the most powerful character of the scene in the context of employees in the office. The position of Williamson in the office is highly secured in comparison with other employees at the office. The demonstration of his power is illuminated in the first scene of this film which is the reason for him being the most powerful character among all others. It will be discussed in the following heading (Longenecker, Sims, & Gioia, 1987). Williamson as the Most Powerful Character The prominence of power is significantly practiced by the character of Williamson in the first scene of this drama film. Williamson is the company man whose job does not contain any dependency on the quantity of sales. His job is precisely associated with delivering the orders to the salesman which he collects from the owners of the company. His exercise of power is highly illuminated in his offer, which he presents to Shelley. He acquires the opportunity due to the weakness in Shelley’s position on which he attempts to capitalize (Fairholm, 2009). He acquires the power of his professional position and attempts to fulfill his personal goal. The positional power of Williamson assists him to deliver his personal ambition to Shelley on which he absolutely capitalizes. Shelley understands the reward power of Williamson due to his position on the basis of which he becomes helpless and accepts the offer presented to him. However, the acquisition and deliverance of power by Williamson in the first scene of the film is the utility of illegitimate power (Mumby, 2001). Blake is also a symbol of power in the first scene, but he does not acquire his power for illegitimate politics. He also does not capitalize on the advantages of his position even though he possesses more power than the manager of the office, which is Williamson, possess. The exercise of power is highlighted in the act of Williamson (Pfeffer, 1992). Williamson has been portrayed as a self serving individual who seeks to fulfill his personal ambitions utilizing the power of his professional position. This is the reason why Williamson is considered as the most powerful character in the first scene of the film (Longenecker, Sims, & Gioia, 1987). Conclusion This film is a remarkable depiction of organizational politics along with the role of managers in their exercise of power in many forms. This paper was firmly focused on the analysis of the first scene. This scene provides a significant direction to the viewers regarding the direction of the film. There are four characters, which are present in this scene from which Williamson, Shelley and Blake are prominent. Blake is presented as the symbol of authority, and he applies his positional power to pursue the corporate objectives. However, the contest, which Blake presents, is also contained with the personal advantages to the employees that are the four salesmen along with punishment on failure. Regardless of the fact that, Blake possesses more positional power than Williamson; Williamson is the most powerful character among all of the other characters. The reason for this is the capitalization of power by Williamson for not only his professional goals but also for his personal ambitions. This makes Williamson the most powerful character in the first scene of the film. References List Brantley, B. (2012, December 10). Fugue for Wrung-Out Tinhorns. The New York Times , p. C1. Buchanan, D., & Badham, R. (2008). Power, Politics, and Organizational Change: Winning the Turf Game. London: SAGE. Ebert, R. (1992, October 2). GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Retrieved September 25, 2013, from www.rogerebert.com: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/glengarry-glen-ross-1992 Fairholm, G. W. (2009). Organizational Power Politics: Tactics in Organizational Leadership. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. IMDb. (2013). Glengarry Glen Ross. Retrieved September 25, 2013, from www.imdb.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/ Kotter, J. P. (1982). What effective general managers really do. Harvard business review , 60 (6), 156. Longenecker, C. O., Sims, H. P., & Gioia, D. A. (1987). Behind the mask: The politics of employee appraisal. The Academy of Management Executive , 1 (3), 183-193. Mumby, D. K. (2001). Power and politics. The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods , 585-623. Pfeffer, J. (1992). Understanding power in organizations. California Management Review , 34 (2), 29-50. Rovi, M. T. (2013). Glengarry Glen Ross. Retrieved September 24, 2013, from www.rottentomatoes.com: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glengarry_glen_ross/ Wrong, D. H. (1995). Power: Its Forms, Bases, and Uses. New York: Transaction Publishers. Read More