MovieChat Forums > Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Discussion > Isn't the timeline a little weird for th...

Isn't the timeline a little weird for that night?

posted 9 years ago by Silent_Bob01
6 replies | jump to latest

The sales meeting starts at 7:30 and lasts approximately 20 minutes.

Now it's almost 8 PM and the guys are JUST then heading out for sits? I'm thinking Shelly doesn't get to Spannel's place until 9 or 9:30. No wonder he was annoyed.

When Moss and Aaronow are discussing the robbery, it's gotta be around 10 PM. Moss says he's going to a movie and THEN going to get a drink at the Como Inn.

Also during this time, Roma is still drinking and schmoozing Lingk, and apparently he goes over to his house for dinner at, when, 11 PM??

I'm naturally a night owl, but these hours don't seem especially realistic to me. If my spouse came home with a smooth-talking sales guy at 11 PM and expected dinner, I'd be more than a little put off...although I guess when you're in the sleazy business they are, you spend a lot of late nights looking for drunk marks in bars or trying to catch people at really inopportune times of the day for additional pressure.

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

Didn't the husband say he was going to go pick up his wife at a PTA meeting? I'd say that puts Levine's visit closer to 8 or 8:30.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] BulletHeadedSaxonMothersSon 8 years ago

I agree with PreachCaleb's observation. I figure Moss finally broached the subject of the robbery with Aaranow around 9 o'clock, which is also close to the time that Roma finally reels Lingk in and shows him the brochure at the bar.
It's probably 9:30 or 10 when Lingk finally brings Roma home, not as late as the OP thinks but still pretty late to be coming home with a salesman and asking your wife to cook you both dinner, I agree.

[–] tbickle84 8 years ago

Bringing a salesman home at anytime who you just met at a bar is a stretch but I'd assume she could've made dinner for her husband hours ago and just heated it up for the both of them.

[–] Silent_Bob01 8 years ago

Very true. Pull my initial estimates in by about 1 hour...still seems awfully late to be conducting such affairs.

[–] tbickle84 8 years ago

I just got the 2 disc special editing in the mail. I can't wait to listen to the director commentary and watch the documentary it comes with!

[–] eelb 8 years ago

We don't know if all the scenes occur at different points in time. Some of them are happening concurrently. Roma's in the restaurant with Lingk, while Aaronow and Moss are driving around. Roma isn't at the sales meeting, so that allows him to be with Lingk then too. In Levine's case, we don't know how far Spannel's home is from the sales office.

The stage play is easier to understand in this respect. There's two sets; the Chinese restaurant and the office. The other locations in the film don't exist and the sales meeting scene with Alec Baldwin's character doesn't occur. Nor does Levine's "sit" with Mr.Spannel

The play opens with all the characters sitting in booths in the restaurant. The dialog is pretty much the same as the film. Levene and Williamson, Aaronow and Moss, and Roma and Lingk. All the dialog that's in the film is delivered in the stage play in these 3 booths, with the 3 pairs of characters. A spotlight moves among the 3 booths from conversation to conversation. The first act ends with Roma's sale pitch to Lingk. The second act opens in the office after the robbery, just as the film does. The play and the film are identical from there on.