Death of a F**king Salesman

[EasyAce]

Donald Trump can't close the deal
By Kevin D. Williamson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449988/donald-trump-cant-close-deal-failing-salesman

A few years ago in New York, Al Pacino starred in a revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, and the
casting was poignant: In 1992, a much younger and more vigorous Pacino had played the role of hotshot salesman
Ricky Roma in the film adaptation of the play; in the Broadway revival, a 72-year-old Pacino played the broken-
down has-been Shelley Levene.

Glengarry Glen Ross is the Macbeth of real estate, full of great, blistering lines and soliloquies so liberally peppered
with profanity that the original cast had nicknamed the show “Death of a F***ing Salesman.” But a few of those
attending the New York revival left disappointed. For a certain type of young man, the star of Glengarry Glen Ross
is a character called Blake, played in the film by Alec Baldwin. We know that his name is “Blake” only from the
credits; asked his name by one of the other salesmen, he answers: “What’s my name? F*** you. That’s my name.”
In the film, Blake sets things in motion by delivering a motivational speech and announcing a sales competition:
“First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize? A set of steak knives. Third prize is, you’re fired. Get the picture?”
 He berates the salesmen in terms both financial — “My watch cost more than your car!” — and sexual. Their
problem, in Blake’s telling, isn’t that they’ve had a run of bad luck or bad sales leads — or that the real estate
they’re trying to sell is crap — it is that they aren’t real men . . .

. . . Never mind the advice of Cicero (esse quam videri, be rather than seem) or
Rush — just go around acting like
Blake and people will treat you like Blake.

If that sounds preposterous, remind yourself who the president of the United States of America is.

Trump is the political version of a pickup artist, and Republicans — and America — went to bed with him convinced
that he was something other than what he is. Trump inherited his fortune but describes himself as though he were
a self-made man.

He has had a middling career in real estate and a poor one as a hotelier and casino operator but convinced people
he is a titan of industry. He has never managed a large, complex corporate enterprise, but he did play an executive
on a reality show. He presents himself as a confident ladies’ man but is so insecure that he invented an imaginary
friend to lie to the New York press about his love life and is now married to a woman who is open and blasé about
the fact that she married him for his money. He fixates on certain words (“negotiator”) and certain classes of words
(mainly adjectives and adverbs, “bigly,” “major,” “world-class,” “top,” and superlatives), but he isn’t much of a
negotiator, manager, or leader. He cannot negotiate a health-care deal among members of a party desperate for
one, can’t manage his own factionalized and leak-ridden White House, and cannot lead a political movement that
aspires to anything greater than the service of his own pathetic vanity . . . For all his gold-plated toilets, he is at
heart that middling junior salesman watching Glengarry Glen Ross and thinking to himself: “That’s the man I want
to be.” How many times do you imagine he has stood in front of a mirror trying to project like Alec Baldwin?
Unfortunately for the president, it’s Baldwin who does the good imitation of Trump, not the other way around . . .

. . . He isn’t Blake. He’s poor sad old Shelley Levene, who cannot close the deal, who spends his nights whining
about the unfairness of it all.

So, listen up, Team Trump: “Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers only.”

Got that?

[endicom]

Has Williamson been sleeping with George Will?

[Night Hides Not]

Has Williamson been sleeping with George Will?

Perhaps, but he mostly nailed it in this piece. The Mooch would love to play the role of Blake. He probably watches Wall Street on a loop, imagining himself as the next Gordon Gekko.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Has Williamson been sleeping with George Will?

I don't know, but this is brilliantly written and insightful, like so many of George Will's columns.

[Wingnut]

I didn't read it.   Who played Willy Loman in this version?

[EasyAce]

I didn't read it.   Who played Willy Loman in this version?

The title referenced the nickname Glengarry Glen Ross was given by its cast during filming,
based on the abundance of profanity married to the Blake character in particular.

[Wingnut]

The title referenced the nickname Glengarry Glen Ross was given by its cast during filming,
based on the abundance of profanity married to the Blake character in particular.

Oh.  Thanks Ace!  
But Wingnut prefers the classics to some profane hollywood send up!  ;)   LOL

[EasyAce]

Oh.  Thanks Ace!  
But Wingnut prefers the classics to some profane hollywood send up!  ;)   LOL

Glengarry Glen Ross wasn't a send up; the profanity in the script seemed excessive that
that's where someone in the cast---in something picked up by the others---nicknamed the
script "Death of a F**king Salesman." I'm not sure Death of a Salesman itself has ever
gotten the send-up treatment, though it'd be interesting to try with the right writer.