Yep, a really nice touch. Levene and Roma have a low-key great understanding. You see it here, then when Levene plays along with Roma pretending to be the AMEX president or whatever. Then of course Roma heaps praise on Levene before he's about to go down, saying 'there's a man I can work with.' I almost wonder whether that lunch Roma was inviting Levene to could've been the start of a business venture between the two of them, given how fed up Roma was at that point.
@@zgaming6806if I recall correctly, on the screenplay, Roma was basically luring Levine who was desperate for a success, to con him and keep half of his sales. He tells Williamson right before leaving that Levine is now his partner and he'd keep 50% of Levine's commission. Not that he needed it, he was just that kind of a ruthless mf.
It's a great detail. Show someone the same picture twice, sell the second picture like you've never seen it before. Convincing someone not to trust their own eyes sums up the sales racket perfectly.
Love the way Roma asks a question as if it's not rhetorical, but then answers before his mark can. Establishing his dominance and developing rapport at the same time through his insightful wisdom.
Yes..but this also shows how cynical everything and everyone can be. Because there he tells some deep truth, we don't live the moment because we are afraid of the loss of our existence. And then he uses the truth to sell plots of land. It's like the coca cola commercials... They show you how important family is, at Christmas let's say, they make you emotional. And then they sell you the product. Or like a person that can't have his way with truth and tells people lots of shit... Just to make things like he/she wants. Deep down, philosophy, emotion aside, many people are dead cynical.... And they make life cynical. For profit.
That has to be the VAGUEST pamphlet ever made. It may as well just be a napkin drawing of a flamingo with 'FLORIDA' written at the top. The High Sparrow must have been drunk as hell when he busted out that checkbook.
Not true, all The best salesman got their clients drunk until it was basically ousted from the office culture in favor of power-points and power lunches…even today though the best closers do all of their best work in a bar/party/social gathering that isn’t the office.
Sensing the mark's insecurities, talking nonsense like it's deep philosophy, making the mark want to latch onto your "deep insights" and confidence... Beautiful.
Let's not forget who CREATED AND WROTE the character of Ricky Roma, and all of the other brilliantly interwoven and specially developed characters in this story... ingenius playwright, David Mamet...
The true salesmanship here is that he’s making talking about nothing interesting somehow. It’s about body language and timing and buying the drinks. He transitions to financial matters and investments as though by accident. Then again, perhaps the point is to highlight the kind of ethical world that the salesman lives in.
0:33 Love Jack’s look at the mark when he responds to Al’s comment about dehydration. Classic sharp salesmen know when it’s time to leave and let your boy reel him in. So well done that many that aren’t into sales didn’t witness the art of awareness.
Well spotted! It was the smart choice. In a later scene Jack is acting like he is a client of Al. He wouldn't be able to do that if he had stayed with Al in that bar :)
It's part of the build up to the sale. I do what I want against others better judgement. Take a risk like me buy this land vicariously. He's selling an outlook a lifestyle, his phony machismo as much as he's selling the land.
It's interesting that they're collegues but also competitors, for the cadillac but it also turns out for their very jobs. And yet Shelley helps Ricky at every turn. You can see how Ricky treats his co-workers, though. Every time he can be nice to them and it costs him nothing, he is. Except Moss for some reason :D
@@MarkusRamikin Because Moss is a lucky dude who makes excuses for his shortcomings, even willing to rip off the joint just to get ahead since he couldn't hack it as a legit salesman. Granted, the office was giving every man in the place some dogshit leads. Even Roma could see how awful everything in the place was and made his own opportunities when he could.
So he( R. ROMA ) basically is telling Link his life is exciting and adventurous ( bragging about the " great fucks " he has had and how he wasn't interested on the orgasm anymore among other cute nonsense ) remarking at the same time how boring and uneventful Link's life's been, he has achieved this supreme state of comfort and self acceptance following his philosophy which basically consists on seeing every chance and event in his life as an opportunity. An opportunity to lose or win money. An opportunity to gain knowledge about himself. He offers James the opportunity to be LIKE HIM. For once in his life. He obviously will not let Link have a great f...k on his account, but Link could start seeing his life's happenings as opportunities.
At 2:15 - the wink at Moss saying "I'm setting up a mark". Moss is expressionless - he could care less whether Roma succeeds or not and later it is clear he resents Roma's success.
This is the speech of someone who has no one he cares about, no one who will remember him after he's gone. Maybe that's who Roma really is, or maybe that's just how he sizes up his mark.
There's a quick moment in this movie, shortly after Roma realizes that the phones were stolen, where you can see a framed picture of a woman on his desk. Whether his girlfriend, his daughter, who knows? But it led me to believe he had someone to care about.
The first time I saw this in the early's 90's, when Pacino first popped on the screen I thought he was too big for the movie, that maybe they should've gone with an unknown actor for this role. Then this scene came on and it was like, "Oh yeah, right. Almost forgot who we're talkin' about here." My favorite Zen Master Al scene of all time, and I quote it often; "Where's the moment?"
Joe Mantegna actually played the role first on Broadway and really wanted to play him in the movie, but Foley chose Pacino instead...and that obviously was the better choice.
I love Ricky's abstract, pseudo-philosophical sales approach. Lingk is hanging onto his every word. Surely he's not being duped by someone who confesses he doesn't mind that "all train compartments smell vaguely of shit"?
@@jackthomas6952 I think Roma senses this also, and thusly plays upon it. First thing, “you think you’re queer, we’re all queer. You cheated on your wife, you did it. Live with it. You fuck little girls, so be it.” He’s luring Lingk in by normalizing sexual deviances. Homosexuality wasn’t really accepted back in those days.
I mean, I’ve seen Boiler room,wall street and other great movies about sellings,but this….this is…this is the masterpiece!! Al is just fantastic in this scene. It´s even better then the Alec’s sketch in this perfect movie. I’m loving it from the start till the end!
When a stranger I just met talks too much about random and obscure things I know that person is going to sell me something. I’d walk away before he tells me what he’s selling :))
@@berniepfitzner487 lmao that is the dumbest shit i’ve heard in a while. Do you know how many sales jobs there are out there? Most of ya’ll bought cars from salesmen, the phones you bought at your cell phone carrier stores are salesmen who receive commission. If you buy clothes from high end clothes stores the sales reps get commission, the list goes on. Yes obviously word of mouth and reading reviews helps but to claim anything coming from a salesman is a bad product is ridiculous and idiotic.
This is better seduction than any dumb bar pick up line. That final “listen to what I’m gonna tell you now”. He already knows he’s got his man. The “pitch” is irrelevant.
While the others are basing their whole strategy around the leads they get, Roma is out there reeling in random people he meets. I'm sure that's a big part of his success. That and his talk.
I think some of the lines from the actual play that aren't in the movie make Roma's point a bit clearer. "All it is, it's a carnival. What's special... what draws us?" So in the end his gist is the same as Levene talking to the Nyborgs about about finding a suitcase full of money. Something like: life is boring, take a chance.
I don't know what it is, but I adore movies where the main characters are salesmen types like Glengarry, Wallstreet, Family Man... my favorite TV show is Mad Men.
The pamphlet emphasizes the point of the scene - he’s not selling land, he's not even selling opportunity to make money, or a retirement plan. He’s selling a feeling, a desire, fuck a scent in the air.
I was in sales for a short period of time, and that's at the age of 18 to 20. I wanted to learn about everything there's to it. It came to me that I'm just not cut for it. It takes something spectacular to be a predator in sales, like an athletic sportsman - not everybody has it. Pacino is like a God here.
I’m telling you, as someone in something like sales, this is how it’s done. Don’t talk sales. Talk life. What does it mean to you? You tell me. What do you want it to mean? Etc etc.
Of course. If someone opens up on me with a sales pitch, I am immediately on my guard; if someone shares an amusing anecdote, I am more inclined to listen.
Cool words spoken well, but honestly, I don’t think most people would fall for it. As soon as that brochure comes out, we’d all be like, “oh fuck this.”
I’ve always gotten the impression that Lengk isn’t the brightest, or is at the least pretty damned naive (a likely trait of most of the people Roma and the others actually manage to sell land to). Add to that all the drinks Roma had been buying him up to that point and it’s not much of a stretch that he’d fall for it.
@@tldogmeat Aha. Well 'Tim' I am member of that ethnic group, its not a race, we have a protection group . They deal with threats to our people, proactively, and decisively. They justify this on basis "Little bit right now saves a whole lot later". They don't discriminate, but they do judge, then act. Subtle, with minimum effort required. Let us hope paths never intersect. You think about that before opening your anti-semite gutter mouth. When we say "NEVER AGAIN", we mean it!
The only lesson I get from here is, don't work sales. You have to basically be desperate AF to earn a middle class living, maybe if you're a true sociopath you might be better off. Or, you know, you could educate yourself and be a doctor or something.
Don’t be crooked. I just retired from 35 years in sales (100% commission). I had a great income but more importantly my customers are happy. I could call any of them today and they would be happy to hear from me. I put my customers first. Long hours, hard work, but satisfying.
Would have been too pat. Roma is too good. But who knows if Roma doesn't one day end up like Shelley. Desperate for that one sale that will return him to a glory that exists only as a figment of imagined memory.
I was in financial services sales for 19 years after University and looking back those were the best and the worst years of my life. So many highs and lows. I can relate to every one of the these guys. We watched the coffee is for closers scene in sales meeting and then have role played that hundreds of times since. The ‘Patel’ scene was also excellent although 2 of my best deals were with Patels they were generally the hardest people to sell to.
they were selling land that had no chance of increasing in value if there really was the possibility of development on the land, they wouldnt have to lie to the buyers
I feel like everyone is missing the very obvious takeaway from the movie's intentional voice that Ricky Roma, Alec Baldwin's character, and every other salesman in this racket is just the Music Man without the musical numbers or the heart of gold
someone please explain to me what genuinely profound wisdom equates liberating yourself from possessions with blowing your life's savings on flamingo property that you have no use for as a working stiff in the middle of downtown Ricky Roma is acted *beyond* absolute perfection! He's also intended to be read as a total scam artist blowing smoke out his ass in all the old school ways Shelley "The Machine" Levene taught him
Ricky Roma I assume wasn't as successful as the Baldwin character. And that's fine. He was definitely wiser, kinder, even more straightforward. I love the contrast. Kudos to Baldwin, but Ricky Roma knew the real truth, the inexplicable nature of the cosmos, universe, whatever.
Pacino tqlking about the four train cars smelling faintly of shit. He was referring to German train cars, and you would have had to have been in one to know how true that was. My first time in Germany, I had to grab a train out of Munich to Augsburg and so help me, it was exactly like that.
