In class we watched a critical scene from the movie Glengarry Glenross. The scene relates closely to the Marxism theory. In this scene Alec Baldwin plays an abusive and authoritarian motivational speaker for a company. He belittles and degrades the three workers in a way that I have never really seen before. One action that surprised me was when his character walked over to his briefcase and pulled out a pair of brass balls and held them at his crotch. He then yelled, “You need brass balls to sell real estate!”. he told them that wouldn’t make it and repeatedly called them degrading names. Alec Baldwin’s character is the voice of the bourgeoisie that we discussed in class. His speech was representative of the superstructure in Marxist theory and the three workers represent the base. The base “the comprehends the relations of production — employer-employee work conditions, the technical division of labour, and property relations — into which people enter to produce the necessities and amenities of life. These relations fundamentally determine society’s other relationships and ideas, constituting the superstructure.” they both relay on each other to work so basically they both need each other to survive.
Alex Baldwin’s character was quick to tell the three men what would happen to them if they did not sell any, “first place is a shiny new Cadillac, second place is a set of steak knives, and third place is you’re fired” (Glengarry). He was blunt and scared these men with losing their jobs over these little note cards. Marx would be “shocked by the examination of capitalism and its costs to the men and women caught in its grasp” (Leitch 647)
works cited
Glengarry Glen Ross. Screenplay by David Mamet. Dir. James Foley. Perf. Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, and Ed Harris. 1992.
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
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