The muskrats that the bear hunter were quietly scaring with his rifle, escape and dig in holes in the nearby fallen log that spell out, "GOODBYE, MR CHIPS".
We here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour love Tom Waits. While wading through the shoals of the intraweb we found this illustrated short story, written by him :
While not exactly a story for young children, it was included in a book that was created to benefit a number of non-profits working to build schools and educate children around the world.
We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1992 drama, Glengarry Glen Ross directed by James Foley, wriiten by David Mamet, based on his 1984 play of the same name, and starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and Jonathan Pryce. During the production, the actors referred to this film as Death of a Fuckin' Salesman.
David Mamet based his original play on his own experience working in a real estate office in the 1970s, when he was a struggling playwright. He was the office manager who gave out sales leads and handled the paperwork.
David Mamet's screenplay considerably expanded his script for the play, providing more context for the pressure placed on the salesmen. Notably, Alec Baldwin's introductory speech was added as well as Jack Lemmon's phone calls to clients and the hospital, plus his sales call to the man with the fishing rod. Many consider the screenplay to be superior to the text for his Pultizer-winning stage play. The film version is often transcribed to stage now.
Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin and Ed Harris purposely gave Alec Baldwin the cold shoulder on set as they hung out in their trailers. This was done not because they had a problem with Baldwin, but in a way it was to separate their characters from this guy who basically comes in and belittles them with a tirade. To get back at them, Baldwin put a lot more effort into making them feel like crap and when he yells at Lemmon at his desk, his reaction to him was completely genuine according to James Foley.
Please find a very comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this gripping drama: Glengarry Glen Ross
Ever since its release, the film has been used to train real-life salesmen how to sell and how not to sell. Lines like "coffee is for closers" have become catchphrases in sales organizations across the country. This movie, Boiler Room, and Wolf of Wall Street have become icons in the American sales community; watched over and over again, copied and revered, even though all actually mean to be indictments of American sales culture; they do not mean to lionize it. But the meaning of movies are often in the eye of the beholder; and unfortunately these anti-capitalist paeans were made with such style and verve they actually made the world of sales appear attractive and sexy, not nightmarish as intended; they have actually worked to draw more people into it, rather than scaring them away.
Demand Euphoria!
