Portal:David Mamet
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
|
Introduction
David Alan Mamet (/ˈmæmɪt/; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017.
Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include House of Games (1987), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Heist (2001), and Redbelt (2008). His screenwriting credits include The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982), The Untouchables (1987), Hoffa (1992), Wag the Dog (1997), and Hannibal (2001). Mamet himself wrote the screenplay for the 1992 adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, and wrote and directed the 1994 adaptation of his play Oleanna (1992). He was the executive producer and frequent writer for the TV show The Unit (2006–2009).
Selected general articles
- Phil Spector is a television film directed and written by David Mamet. The film is based on the murder trials of music producer, songwriter and musician Phil Spector and was released in the United States by HBO Films, premiering on HBO on March 24, 2013. It stars Al Pacino as Phil Spector, Helen Mirren as defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, and Jeffrey Tambor as defense attorney Bruce Cutler. It focuses primarily on the relationship between Phil Spector and Linda Kenney Baden, his defense attorney in 2007 during the first of his two murder trials for the 2003 death of Lana Clarkson in his California mansion, and is billed as “an exploration of the client-attorney relationship” between Spector and Kenney Baden.
The film was controversial for fictionalizing aspects of the case and for neglecting significant evidence presented by the real life prosecution, leading to accusations that the movie was created as an advocacy piece in Spector's favor. Spector was not involved with the film, and according to his lawyer, "certainly doesn't regard the film as an accurate portrayal of what went on because it's not. It has invented events." Although it is based on real people and an actual event, it opens with an usually worded disclaimer that states "This is a work of fiction. It's not 'based on a true story.' ... It is a drama inspired by actual persons on a trial, but it is neither an attempt to depict the actual persons, nor to comment upon the trial or its outcome." Read more... - Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film where a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer fabricate a war to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. It was produced and directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The screenplay by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet was loosely adapted from Larry Beinhart's novel American Hero.
Wag the Dog was released one month before the outbreak of the Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the Clinton administration in August 1998, which prompted the media to draw comparisons between the film and reality. The comparison was made again in December 1998 when the administration initiated a bombing campaign of Iraq just prior to Clinton's impeachment over the Lewinsky scandal. Read more... - Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American drama film adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, and directed by James Foley. The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen and how they become desperate when the corporate office sends a trainer to "motivate" them by announcing that, in one week, all except the top two salesmen will be fired. It was filmed in New York City.
Like the play, the film is notorious for its use of profanity, leading the cast to refer to the film jokingly as "Death of a Fuckin' Salesman." The title of the film comes from the names of two of the real estate developments being peddled by the salesmen characters: Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms. Read more... - Speed-the-Plow is a 1988 play by David Mamet that is a satirical dissection of the American movie business. As stated in The Producer's Perspective, 'this is a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog (1997) and State and Main (2000)'. As quoted in The Producer's Perspective, 'Jack Kroll of Newsweek described Speed-the-Plow as "another tone poem by our nation's foremost master of the language of moral epilepsy."'
The play sets its context with an epigram (not to be recited in performance) by William Makepeace Thackeray, from his novel Pendennis, contained in a frontispiece: It starts: "Which is the most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from the struggle of life, calmly contemplating it, or he who descends to the ground, and takes his part in the contest?" The character of Bobby Gould finds himself on both sides of this dilemma, and at times in the play he "stands aloof," and at other times he "takes part" in life's contest, with its moral strictures. Read more... - Faustus is a two act play by David Mamet that had its world premiere in San Francisco's Magic Theatre in March 2004, directed by Mamet. It is a contemporary version of the Faust legend. Read more...
- Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in her first film in 1976 in All the President's Men. For her role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include Slap Shot (1977), Between the Lines (1977), The Verdict (1982), Prefontaine (1997), and The Insider (1999). She also had a leading role in the 1987 film House of Games, which was directed by her then-husband David Mamet. In 1996, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "Between Mother and Daughter", an episode of CBS Schoolbreak Special. She is also a Grammy Award nominee. Read more...
- Hoffa is a 1992 American biographical crime film directed by Danny DeVito and written by David Mamet, based on the life of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Most of the story is told in flashbacks before ending with Hoffa's mysterious disappearance. Jack Nicholson plays Hoffa, and DeVito plays Robert Ciaro, an amalgamation of several Hoffa associates over the years. The film features John C. Reilly, Robert Prosky, Kevin Anderson, Armand Assante, and J. T. Walsh in supporting roles. The film received mixed reviews and grossed just $29 million against its $35 million budget. Read more...
- The Frog Prince is a play by American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director David Mamet.
The play is about half an hour long and tells the traditional story of the haughty prince who has been placed under a spell which has turned him into a frog and can only be restored to his original form by a willing kiss. The play is more cheerful than most of Mamet's work and contains none of the coarse language for which he is known.
The Frog Prince was first presented in 1982 in Chicago at Goodman Theatre by the Remains Theatre Ensemble. It was performed in 1985 in New York at the Ensemble Theatre Studio. Read more... - The Spanish Prisoner is a 1997 American neo-noir suspense film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman and Ricky Jay. The plot entails a story of corporate espionage conducted through an elaborate confidence game.
In 1999 the film was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay but lost out to Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight. Read more... - The Woods is a 1977 play by David Mamet. The show involves a young couple's weekend at a lakeside cabin. Mamet banned the play from being put on in New York in 1985, but lifted the ban unexpectedly in 1996 for actress Danielle Kwatinetz. Read more...
- Race is a play by David Mamet that premiered on Broadway in December 2009. Mamet has stated that the intended "theme is race and the lies we tell each other on the subject." Read more...
- The Untouchables is a 1987 American gangster film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Art Linson, written by David Mamet, and based on the book of the same name (1957). The film stars Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery, and follows Eliot Ness (Costner) as he forms the Untouchables team to bring Al Capone (De Niro) to justice during Prohibition. The Grammy Award-winning score was composed by Ennio Morricone and features period-era music by Duke Ellington.
The Untouchables premiered on June 2, 1987 in New York City, and went into general release on June 3, 1987 in the United States. The film grossed $106.2 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for four Academy Awards; Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Read more... - House of Games is a 1987 heist-thriller film directed by David Mamet, his directorial debut. He also wrote the screenplay, based on a story he co-wrote with Jonathan Katz. The film's cast includes Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, and J. T. Walsh. Read more...
- The Verdict is a 1982 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet from Barry Reed's eponymous novel. It stars Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea, and Lindsay Crouse. In the story, a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer accepts a medical malpractice case to improve his own situation, but discovers along the way that he is doing the right thing.
The Verdict garnered critical acclaim and box office success. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Newman), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Mason), Best Director (Sidney Lumet), Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay (David Mamet). Read more... - The Edge is a 1997 American survival film directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Bart the Bear, a trained Kodiak bear known for appearances in several Hollywood movies, also appears in the film as a vicious grizzly; this was one of his last film roles. Read more...
- American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet which had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two more showcase productions it opened on Broadway in 1977. Read more...
Pidgeon at the premiere of Redbelt, April 2008
Rebecca Pidgeon (born October 10, 1965) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to American writer and director David Mamet. Read more...- Spartan is a 2004 action thriller film written and directed by David Mamet. It features Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, Tia Texada, Ed O'Neill, William H. Macy, and Kristen Bell. It was released in the United States and Canada on 12 March 2004. The film generated more than $25 million in home video rentals in the United States (significantly higher than the film's US box office gross). Read more...
- The Winslow Boy is a 1999 period drama film directed by David Mamet. Starring Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca Pidgeon, Jeremy Northam and Gemma Jones. Set in London before World War I, it depicts a family defending the honour of its young son at all cost. The screenplay was adapted by Mamet based on Terence Rattigan's dramatic play The Winslow Boy.
It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Read more...
Oleanna is a two-character play by David Mamet, about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure. The play's title, taken from a folk song, refers to a 19th-century escapist vision of utopia. Mamet later adapted his play into a film of the same name. Read more...- Clara Mamet (born September 29, 1994) is an American actress and musician best known for her role as Amber Weaver in the ABC television comedy The Neighbors. Read more...
- Lansky is a 1999 American made-for-television crime drama film directed by John McNaughton and starring Richard Dreyfuss as the famous gangster Meyer Lansky, Eric Roberts as Bugsy Siegel, and Ryan Merriman as the young Lansky. Read more...
- Things Change is a 1988 comedy and drama film directed by David Mamet and starring Joe Mantegna and Don Ameche. It was co-written by Mamet and Shel Silverstein. Read more...
- Homicide is a crime film written and directed by David Mamet, and released in 1991. The film's cast includes Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, and Ving Rhames. It was entered in the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Read more...
- Squirrels is a one-act play by David Mamet.
The 1974 comedy is about Arthur, a middle-aged, egotistical hack writer who has been working on the opening line of a story involving a man's encounter with a squirrel for fifteen years, and Edmond, the young fledgling writer he has hired as a secretary/collaborator. They soon discover that Arthur's flamboyant redundancy clashes with Edmond's mediocre melodramatic style as they each develop increasingly ridiculous scenarios for the story. They are joined by Arthur's cleaning lady, also an aspiring writer, whose suggestions seem to be the most promising, but they too eventually bog down in banality. Read more... - Hannibal is a 2001 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1999 novel of the same name. It is the sequel to the 1991 Academy Award–winning film The Silence of the Lambs in which Anthony Hopkins returns to his role as the iconic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter. Julianne Moore co-stars, in the role first held by Jodie Foster, as FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling.
The film had a difficult and occasionally troubling pre-production history. When the novel was published in 1999, The Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally, and actress Jodie Foster all declined to be involved in its adaptation. Ridley Scott became attached as director after the success of Gladiator (2000), and eventually signed onto the project after reading the script pitched by Dino De Laurentiis, who produced Manhunter (1986), based on the 1981 Harris novel Red Dragon. After the departure of Foster and screenwriter Tally, Julianne Moore took on Foster's role while David Mamet and Steven Zaillian wrote the screenplay. Read more... - The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1981 American drama film directed by Bob Rafelson and written by David Mamet (in his screenwriting debut). Starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, it is the fourth adaptation of the 1934 novel by James M. Cain. The film was shot in Santa Barbara, California. Read more...
- State and Main is a 2000 comedy film written and directed by David Mamet and starring William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin, Julia Stiles, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Patti LuPone, Clark Gregg, and Charles Durning.
The plot involves the on-location production in Waterford, Vermont, of a film called The Old Mill. The actual film was shot in Massachusetts in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Beverly, Dedham and Waltham. Read more... - The Cryptogram is a play by American playwright David Mamet. The play concerns the moment when childhood is lost. The story is set in 1959 on the night before a young boy is to go on a camping trip with his father. The play premiered in 1994 in London, and has since been produced Off-Broadway in 1995 and again in London in 2006. Read more...
- Heist is a 2001 crime thriller film, written and directed by David Mamet, which stars Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, and Delroy Lindo, with Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay, and Sam Rockwell in supporting roles. Read more...
David Alan Mamet (/ˈmæmɪt/; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017.
Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include House of Games (1987), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Heist (2001), and Redbelt (2008). His screenwriting credits include The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982), The Untouchables (1987), Hoffa (1992), Wag the Dog (1997), and Hannibal (2001). Mamet himself wrote the screenplay for the 1992 adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, and wrote and directed the 1994 adaptation of his play Oleanna (1992). He was the executive producer and frequent writer for the TV show The Unit (2006–2009). Read more...- Romance is a play by David Mamet. It premiered Off-Broadway in 2005 and also ran in London. Read more...
- Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. The play shows parts of two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts—from lies and flattery to bribery, threats, intimidation and burglary—to sell undesirable real estate to unwitting prospective buyers. It is based on Mamet's experience having previously worked in a similar office.
The title comes from two real estate developments mentioned in the play. Glengarry Highlands is the prime real estate everyone is attempting to sell now; Glen Ross Farms is mentioned by several characters as having been very lucrative for those selling it several years ago. Read more... - The Water Engine is a play by David Mamet that centers on the violent suppression of a disruptive alternative energy technology. Read more...
- Edmond is a one-act play written by David Mamet. It premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, on June 4, 1982. The first New York production was October 27 of the same year, at the Provincetown Playhouse. The play consists of twenty-three short scenes. In the original production, each of the actors took on multiple roles, save the two playing Edmond and his wife. Kenneth Branagh starred as Edmond in a production of the play in London in 2003.
A movie based upon the play, starring William H. Macy and Julia Stiles, has been shown at some film festivals in the U.S. and Europe, and underwent limited U.S. release on July 14, 2006. Read more... - Ronin is a 1998 American action thriller film written by John David Zeik and David Mamet (using the pseudonym Richard Weisz) and directed by John Frankenheimer. It stars Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce. In the story, a team of former special operatives is hired to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded briefcase while navigating a maze of shifting loyalties. The film is noted for its realistic car chases in Nice and Paris and its convoluted plot, using the case as a MacGuffin.
Frankenheimer signed in 1997 to direct Zeik's screenplay, which Mamet rewrote significantly to expand De Niro's role and develop plot details. Principal photography was done in France from November 3, 1997 to March 3, 1998 and was supervised by the French cinematographer Robert Fraisse. Vehicle stunts were coordinated and performed by professional race-car drivers. Elia Cmiral scored the film, his first for a major studio. Read more...
Zosia Russell Mamet (/ˈzɒʃəˈmæmɪt/; born February 2, 1988) is an American actress and musician, who has appeared in television series including Mad Men, United States of Tara and Parenthood and as Shoshanna Shapiro on the HBO original series Girls. Read more... - Edmond is a 2005 American drama film directed by Stuart Gordon and starring William H. Macy, based on the 1982 play Edmond by David Mamet. Mamet also wrote the screenplay for the film. Edmond features Julia Stiles, Rebecca Pidgeon, Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Joe Mantegna, Bai Ling, Jeffrey Combs, Dylan Walsh and George Wendt in supporting roles. It was screened at several film festivals from September 2005 to May 2006, and had a limited release on July 14, 2006. Read more...
- The Duck Variations is a 1972 play by American playwright David Mamet. The play depicts a discussion taking place between two elderly men sitting on a park bench watching ducks. The dialogue begins with the mating habits of ducks and runs to examine law, friendship and death. The principal irony is that the men really know nothing about ducks. If they did, it would not improve their beautiful fugue on the theme of the possibility of happiness. Rather they use what experience has taught them and scattered, possibly incorrect ideas and facts to make guesses. They each assure the other that their guesses are established fact. By argument and occasional agreement a composite view of ducks and by extension, the world, begins to emerge. Read more...
- We're No Angels is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Neil Jordan. It stars Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, and Demi Moore. This was Jordan's last film to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA, until Ondine in 2009. Read more...
Need help?
Do you have a question about David Mamet that you can't find the answer to?
Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
Selected images
Mamet at the premiere of Redbelt at Tribeca Film Festival on April 25, 2008
Subcategories
- Select [►] to view subcategories
Topics
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
Wikibooks
Books
Commons
Media
Wikinews
News
Wikiquote
Quotations
Wikisource
Texts
Wikiversity
Learning resources
Wiktionary
Definitions
Wikidata
Database
- What are portals?
- List of portals
