(A)lways (B)e (C)losing

The above clip is a re-enactment of Glengarry Glen Ross originally with Alec Baldwin. (The steel balls prop and the very end make it worth watching)


Glenngarry Glen Ross is the epitome of Marxist Criticism in regards to Capitalism ideals. From start to finish, a flooding of many aspects becomes nearly overwhelming, each moment of speech a biting rhetorical reinforcement of Marxism. Yet one of the most forefront becomes that of Fetishism (not the Freudian idea) "which attaches itself to the products of labour... and which is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities" (Marx 665). He further describes them as having similar functions to that of religious fetishism "having magical or divine power...[seeming to have] a life of their own" (Mark 665).

This is readily seen in the interactions of Baldwin's character with the others in the office. Yet in order to explain the fetishism in the surrounding commodities, it must first be understood that it is broken into two parts; the obvious fetish characteristics and also identity. This fetish/identity are of a bound nature. The fetish aspect is that the items Baldwin present, that of the car, the watch and in a more base aspect, money, all are imbued with characteristics beyond that of simply the material that they are made of. The component composition become component ideal in so much that Baldwin connects the worth of his watch against the worth of the workers car. It is suggested that because the monetary value of the watch out weighs the monetary value of the car, the watch then becomes a stronger talisman within a capitalistic society. The watch symbolically represents a type of power that is not matched by the car.

In a similar capacity, these fetishism relate to identity. Capitalism boils everything down to nothing more "than naked self-interest... of egotistical calculation... [where it] has reduced...relation to a mere money relation" (Marx 659). And the character of Baldwin shows just that. When asked "What's your name" he responds with "I drive an 80 thousand dollar BMW. That's my name." These inanimate objects become the person, or in an another sense the persons identity is elevated through them. Family life, morality, none of this is of any consequence in the capitalist ideal. It simply boils down to, what do I have and what do you have. Commodity is identity. Commodity is power.







Marx, Karl. "The communist Manifesto", "Capital, Vol1". Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.