I find a lot of good stuff to read in the sidebar at AoS.
Today there was
the link to this outstanding piece at the Weekly Standard about David Mamet and his recent conversion to conservatism. It's a long article but well worth reading all the way through. It whets the appetite for Mamet's new book,
The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. It will be available on June 2nd of this year in both
hardcover and
Kindle versions.
Reference was made in the Weekly Standard article to the original "coming out" of Mamet in
an article that he penned for the Village Voice, Why I Am No Longer A Brain Dead Liberal. If you haven't read that one you might start with it (since it was written two years ago, just a couple of months after Toonces was immaculated) and then read the current one in the WS.
Here, though, is a quote from the WS article that I found especially gratifying:
[blockquote]"Dave is a very thorough thinker,” Mordecai Finley told me, “but it never occurred to him that there might be another way to think about politics.”
Finley is rabbi at Ohr HaTorah in Los Angeles, where Mamet attends services with his wife, the actress Rebecca Pidgeon, who converted to Judaism after their marriage in 1991. Mamet’s religious practice, along with his sensitivity to Israel, has deepened since he moved to Southern California and joined Ohr HaTorah. In 2006, he published a scorching book of essays,
The Wicked Son, rebuking secular Jews for their (alleged) self-loathing and reluctance to defend Israel.
The Wicked Son is dedicated to Finley. He is a creature who is not supposed to exist in nature: the Republican rabbi of a liberal congregation packed with show people.
“For most of my congregants,” he said, “I’m the only Republican they know.”
Finley recalls a conversation with Mamet and Pidgeon during the California Democratic presidential primary in 2004. They asked the rabbi and his wife which Democrat they were going to vote for.
“We said, ‘None of them.’
“Dave said, ‘Oh no—you’re not going to vote for Nader!’
“I said, ‘No.’
“And then you could see it hit him. ‘Not Bush!’
'Well, yes. Bush.’ "
“Dave was apologetic. He thought he’d embarrassed us! He said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to pry! I shouldn’t have asked!’
“I said, ‘No, no, it’s really not a problem. It’s not like we try to keep it secret.’ ”
Still safely with the herd, Mamet undertook to pry his rabbi away from his heretical politics. He began sending Finley books, potboilers of contemporary liberalism like
What’s the Matter with Kansas?“They were highly polemical, angry books,” Finley said. “They were very big on sympathy and compassion but really they weren’t”—he looked for the word—“they simply weren’t logically coherent. And Dave is very logical in his thinking. Dave thought What’s the Matter with Kansas? had the answer for why people could even think to vote for a Republican—it’s because they’re duped by capitalist fat cats. I tried to tell him that people really weren’t that stupid. They just have other interests, other values. They’re values voters.
“That’s one thing he began to see: The left flattens people, reduces people to financial interests. Dave’s an artist. He knew people are deeper than that.”
Before long, when Finley didn’t budge, the books from Mamet stopped arriving, and Finley asked if he could send Mamet some books too. One of the first was
A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution. In it Sowell expands on the difference between the “constrained vision” of human nature—close to the tragic view that infuses Mamet’s greatest plays—and the “unconstrained vision” of man’s endless improvement that suffused Mamet’s politics and the politics of his profession and social class.
“He came back to me stunned. He said, ‘This is incredible!’ He said, ‘Who thinks like this? Who are these people?’ I said, ‘Republicans think like this.’ He said, ‘Amazing.’ ” [/blockquote]
So for those of you who do not know who Mamet is and are wondering, "What's this got to do with movies?" I will list off a few of the ones that you have probably seen, heard of or should have seen and/or heard of...
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) screenplay
The Verdict (1982) screenplay
House Of Games (1987) director, screenplay
The Untouchables (1987) screenplay
Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992) screenplay and original author
Wag The Dog (1997) screenplay
The Spanish Prisoner (1997) director, screenplay
The Edge (1997) screenplay
Ronin (1998) screenplay
There are more but these are the highlights. There are many more plays but since this thread covers movies I won't go into that area.
I remember seeing
House Of Games on one of the movie channels a year or so after it was released. It was an excellent psychological thriller involving a psychiatrist and a con artist. The film was so good that I noticed the name of the director/screenwriter and mentally filed it away as someone to watch for in the future. As you can see from the list above I didn't have to wait too long for other top drawer material to follow.
The best of the best was
Glengarry Glenn Ross. Winner of a Tony award and the Pulitzer prize, Glenngarry is the best film ever to capture the essence of what it is to be a salesman. Noted for its profuse profanity it is sometimes referred to as "Death Of A F**kin' Salesman." Glengarry is absolutely riveting. The work by the cast is first rate, probably considered among the best performances of their careers which is saying a lot. Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey and, without a doubt, the best scene ever in the life of Alec Baldwin.
Incredible and memorable lines from the movie include this exchange:
[blockquote]Blake: You're talking about what. You're talking about... Bitching about that sale you shot, some sonofabitch who don't wanna buy land, some broad you're trying to screw, so forth. Let's talk about something important. They all here?
Williamson: All but one.
Blake: I'm going anyway. Let's talk about something important. Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only. You think I'm f**king with you? I am not f**king with you. I'm here from downtown. I'm here from Mitch and Murray. And I'm here on a mission of mercy. Your name's Levine? You call yourself a salesman you son of a bitch?
Dave Moss: I don't gotta sit here and listen to this sh*t.
Blake: You certainly don't pal, 'cause the good news is - you're fired. The bad news is - you've got, all of you've got just one week to regain your jobs starting with tonight. Starting with tonight's sit. Oh? Have I got your attention now? Good. "Cause we're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. Get the picture? You laughing now? You got leads. Mitch and Murray paid good money, get their names to sell them. You can't close the leads you're given you can't close sh*t. You ARE sh*t. Hit the bricks pal, and beat it 'cause you are going OUT.
Shelley Levene: The leads are weak.
Blake: The leads are weak? F**king leads are weak. You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years...
Dave Moss: What's your name?
Blake: F**k you. That's my name. You know why, mister? You drove a Hyundai to get here. I drove an eighty-thousand dollar BMW. THAT'S my name. And your name is you're wanting. You can't play in the man's game, you can't close them - go home and tell your wife your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. You hear me you f**king fa&&ots? A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING. A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention - Do I have you attention? Interest - Are you interested? I know you are, because it's f**k or walk. You close or you hit the bricks. Decision - Have you made your decision, for Christ? And Action. A-I-D-A. Get out there - you got the prospects coming in. You think they came in to get out of the rain? A guy don't walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They're sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it? What's the problem, pal?
Dave Moss: You - Moss. You're such a hero, you're so rich, how come you're coming down here wasting your time with such a bunch of bums?
Blake: You see this watch? You see this watch?
Dave Moss: Yeah.
Blake: That watch costs more than your car. I made $970,000 last year. How much'd you make? You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a sh*t. Good father? F**k you! Go home and play with your kids. You wanna work here - close! You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you c*******er? You can't take this, how can you take the abuse you get on a sit? You don't like it, leave. _I_ can go out there tonight with the materials you've got and make myself $15,000. Tonight! In two hours! Can you? Can YOU? Go and do likewise. A-I-D-A. Get mad you son of a bitches. Get mad. You want to know what it takes to sell real estate? It takes BRASS BALLS to sell real estate. Go and do likewise gents. Money's out there. You pick it up, it's yours. You don't, I got no sympathy for you. You wanna go out on those sits tonight and close, CLOSE. It's yours. If not you're gonna be shining my shoes. And you know what you'll be saying - a bunch of losers sittin' around in a bar. 'Oh yeah. I used to be a salesman. It's a tough racket.' These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for closers. I'd wish you good luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it. And to answer you question, pal, why am I here? I came here because Mitch and Murray asked me to. They asked me for a favor. I said the real favor, follow my advice and fire your f**king ass because a loser is a loser. [/blockquote]
So...there is your Mamet awareness post. The guy is very, very good at what he does and now he's on our side.