David Mamet

David Mamet's principal fame rests on nearly 40 years of successful theatre stage productions. Mamet's style is shaped around short sentences and immediate responses. Much of it is devoted to slang and profanity with an emphasis on terms typical of criminal activity. Crime is a basic ingredent in almost all of his work, though in some instances the crime is secondary to the basic story. In the crime world Mamet is particularly adept at dealing with the con game and the self delusion that makes con's work.

I have slelected five films which I view as personal favorates. This group does not include what is generally considered to be Mamet's finest film, "Glengary Glen Ross," which initially was a successful theatre production. My personal trouble with that film was the excessive use of obscene language. I don't have much of a problem with profanity, but continous use of obscenity is a real turnoff for me. Overall the film is a downer and tends to remind me of my short army career where at one time a fellow GI called my atention to a third member of our company by noting that the G.I.in question used an obscenity as every third or fourth word in a sentence.

Another Mamet classic, and one he received an Acadmy Award for relative to his script writing was "The Verdict." This film was a starrer for Paul Newman and received a lot of acclaim from qualified critics. Certainly it and the previously noted Glengary Glen Ross are worth viewing.

My list includes five other Mamet films which may be directed by him and/or used Scripts he wrote. I will list and discuss them in the order in which I like them, with my first choice topping the list. Generally these films feature actors and actresses that I particularly like. Without further discussion the list follows including the year of release:

1. State and Main (2000)
2. The Winslow Boy (1999)
3. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
4. Things Change (1988)
5. The House of Games (1987)

One thing you will quickly note is that Mamet has particular favorite performers much like Woody Allen, Preston Sturges, John Ford and other writers and directors. In Mamet's case they most notably include Joe Mantegna who is one of my personal favorites and who appears in two of the films listed above plus several others not on my list. Others include Ricky Jay in three of my selections, W.C. Macy in two and Mamet's wife Rebecca Pidgeon in three. In addition it will become obvious to you that others have roles in more than one of the pictures on my list.


STATE AND MAIN - This is a comedy, and a really effective one with a touch of crime as well. It's set in Vermont where a Hollywood film company is shooting a film called "The Old Mill." W.C. Macy is directing this film, Seymour Philip Hoffman is the script writer who is adapting his own novel, Alec Baldwin plays the film within a film's lead actor working with Sarah Jessica Parker as the lead actress.

Macy has several problems before starting production including controlling Alec Baldwin who has developed a fixation on young females starting as young as age 13. One of Macy's jobs is to keep Baldwin under lock and key. Julia Styles plays the teenager in State and Main who comes under Baldwin's observation.

Macy faces a different problem with Parker whose contract calls for her to bare her breasts. Suddenly she just can't do it. Apparently, according to Macy''s assitant, "She recently got religion."

Philip Seymour Hoffman also has a different problem in that he has to rewrite his script. Originally, the crew was going to shoot "The Old Mill" in New Hampshire, but the town father's of the city the company selected wanted too much money. The film crew has moved to the Vermont town because the city they selected in that state has a far more co-operative city government. Unfortunately, however, that town's old mill burnt down a couple of years ago. Hoffman has to rewrite the scipt reflecting this no longer available venue, no old mill. He just can't do it. His good luck however, is that Rebecca Pidgeon , the owner of the local Book Store assures him that it can be done and ultimaely guides him through the solution to his problem.

In the end everything works out though Baldwin does get involved with Styles; Parker is given a new role to play where she doesn't have to expose her breasts and the new script proves to be a great success. There are many great lines and scenes. We learn more about Parker when she comes out of her room at the hotel wearing just a bath towel complaining to Baldwin who had preceded her out, "The reason I can't come is because everyone treats me like a child."


THE WINSLOW BOY - Mamet moved in a different direction in this film which is a period piece set in England in 1910 and based on a real incident. It features Nigel Hawthorne as the father of a boy in an English boys military type school for prospective naval officers. The boy is a 14 year old and interestingly is played by Rebecca Pidgeon's younger brother, Mathew. Rebecca Pidgeon plays Hawthorne's older daughter and Gemma Jones his wife.

The film involves a crime, the theft of an English Postal Note in the value of 5 schillings. Evidence seems to prove that the boy had indeed stolen the note and cashed it resulting in his being expelled from the school. Hawthorne is sure his son did not commit the crime and decides to fight the allegation and expulsion by attempting to sue the English Admiralty for falsely accusing his son.

In order to fight his case Hawthorne contacts and attempts to hire a barrister who also is a member of Parliament to pursue his lawsuit. This role is played very effectivly by Jeremy Northam. The boy is brought before Northam who questions him vigorously much to the alarm of the family members who are there. They are convinced that Northam doesn't believe the boy. Finally, he turns to them and says with a hard to describe expression, "The boy is obviously telling the truth." Later he explains how he reached that conclusion.

Rebecca Pidgeon and Northam develop a relationship during the film. She is a suffragate and very strong willed over her convictions. At the films conclusion Northam tells her he will see her in Parliament again. She notes with her superior air that he doesn't know anything about women, and if he does see her in Parliament she will be a sitting MP. He notes in return, "She doesn't know men very well, and she will be seeing him again." My paraphraising is not 100% on the mark but the implication of their exchange is quite clear.

THE SPANISH PRISONER - I never developed a concise understanding of the phrase "Spanish Prisoner," even though it is explained in the film, but it's implication is clear in that the person in this sitation is trapped in a spider web of deceit that he can't escape from.

The film stars Campbell Scott, George C. Scott's very capable son. Campbell Scott is a mechanical genius type who has developed a concept called THE PROCESS that is sure to make his company a really large sum of money and consequently will benefit Scott handsomly as well. He has the formula carefully locked up in his office safe, in order to protect it from being stolen. His boss Ben Gazzara is the company president and warns him to be very careful since others would be most interested in acquiring the Process, most notably the Japanese.

The film also includes Rebecca Pidgeon as a secretary within Gazzara's company, Ricky Jay who helped Scott in developing the Process and Steve Martin who plays a mysterious and very wealthy New Yorker who befriends Scott.

What we are about to see unfold is an outstanding example of the Big Con. Slowly but surely Scott is taken in and eventually loses the Process. Pidgeon continues to try to help him and eventually drives him from New York to Boston to fly out of the U.S. and flee the coountry since by now Scott is a prime murder suspect. The film draws to a close with the revelation to Scott of what has been going and his rescue at he very end. I won't dwell on the details of the spider's web aspects, but it is very clever and real. One thing to note, the Japanese menace is always in the forefront of the picture. After the third or fourth watching I finally noted that there were a couple of Japanese people, a man and a woman, who appear in several scenes as the film proceeds. This is an obvious reference to the Japanese threat.

This is a tidy film and makes you think back to times in the past when you were fooled perhaps by people you took for granted or perhaps and just as likely when you ended up fooling yourself.

THINGS CHANGE - This is another of Mamet's convoluted stories. In this film Mamet used Don Ameche, a big time name from musical films of the thirties and forties, in an entirely different environment. Ameche is a shoe shine specialist who operates a shoe shine stand in a big city down town environment. Some one from the mob notes that Ameche bares a strong resemblence to an important mafia leader. A plan is developed to have Ameche take the fall when the big time hood commits a murder. Ameche is elderly and is looking forward to retiring in Italy where he will own a small boat and live contentedly in retirement. What the gangsters are going to do is have Ameche get charged with the crime, and then get him off in two or three years and pay him enough money to fullil his dream. Eventually he agrees to the improbable plan.

Joe Mantagna, a low level member of the crime organization , is assigned the task of keeping Ameche under observation and out of site until after the murder. Mantagna takes him to Reno where the two of them stay in a fabulous suite provided by the mob group. Mantagna gets bored, and wants action so he takes Ameche to one of the gambling casino's where the first of many interesting events takes place.

The substance of the story is that Ameche plays everything straight just as you might imagine an unpretentious very self controlled older man might do. However, his closed mouth and relaxed persona has the effect of intimidating other mob operators who are not in on what is going on and who through time mentally elevate Ameche to a very high level in the mobs herirachy.

The whole concept plays out beautifully. Montagna plays his gangster image to perfection, but it's Ameche whose nonchalant very conservative personal image drives the film. His is a very nice overall performance.

HOUSE OF GAMES - This is another of Mamet's investigations into the world of con and in this case it is the real Big Con, one structured without a touch of humor and very diferent from the Paul Newman-Robert Redford film of a few years back, "The Sting." The difference is we are on the outside looking on without any real knowledge of the Con. The ultimate real Big Con is not revealed until near the end of the picture. It's pretty revealing in it's dealings with more perverse human behavior.

Lindsay Crouse, who at that time she Mamet's wife, plays the female lead in the film. She is a psychiatrist who has written a very successful book on compulsive behavior. One of her patients comes for an appointment and lets her know he's going to be killed because he couldn't control his gambling obsessions and now owes several thousand dollars to a local gambler. Crouse agrees to try and help him partly from curiosity and partly from genuine interest in helping her patient. She visits the site where the gambling took place. It is a very sleazy dive in some ugly part of New York. There she meets Mantagna, who is a real low life and who is the guy her patient owes the money too. While there she watches an on-going poker game and eventally, in order to help Mantagna, bankroles him. She accidentally discovers and exposes a con supposedly of Mantagna by Mamet regular Ricky Jay.

As time goes by Crouse gets more and more involved and interested in this kind of criminal activity. Mantagna lets her observe more fleecing attempts and gradually she becomes so fascinated in him that a personal relationship evolves. Eventually all this activity ends up in the biggest con of all which finds her extending Mantagna more financial support. Her observations eventually lead her to revealing conclusions which are resolved at the very end of the film.

One further comment. Early on in the film Crouse is advised by her mentor another psychologist Phd to get herself a lighter rather than always looking and asking for matches to support hr smoking habit. This advice comes back to us at the very end of the film.

The con game and related false playing are heavy elements in several other Mamet films, most notably in "Ronin" and "Heist" which starred Robert DeNiro. Also "Homicide" where Joe Mantagna, W.C. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon are involved in a drama of self delusion. One thing that is consistent with Mamet films is that they are deeply engrossing and require close atention to eventually understand what is going on. Usually one viewing will not be enough to saisfy this need for undersanding.