By “Coffee’s for closers,” says Alec Baldwin’s tyrannical salesman Blake to Jack Lemmon’s meek Shelley Levene, the latter’s efforts to quench his thirst stopped in their tracks as a result.
In the David Mamet-scripted film about Chicago-based real estate salesmen, one of the finest films about salespeople ever made, the battleground is laid before them, careers on the line, the sales figure all that matters between life and doom.
Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross.
As Blake issues his instructions, like some kind of profanity-strewn Messiah, the weak, like a fading, aged, Shelley Levene, are separated from the strong. The lions from the cubs. The predator from the prey.
It’s indicative of how much tension can be drawn from the sales environment, reminding us why films have often chosen salespeople as their focus. And as anyone who is – or was – involved in sales can attest, there’s inherent drama in this world of endless cutthroat competition.
What are the best films about salespeople?
Sales – as a dramatic device – has taken many forms in cinema. There is a predominant trope, however, in that many of the films about sales look at male characters, principally focused on the “making of the man”, a sort of magnification of machismo through the ability to “close”. A figure-based pissing competition.
That doesn’t necessarily mean “man is king”. Indeed, these films often display the failings and shortcomings of decision-making; Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street showcasing the repercussions of debauched excess (and criminality) and The Big Short giving the credit crunch a (male) face we can point a finger at.
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street.
That said, it’s worth noting there is a great female-centric sales movie out there too – although you have to search a little bit to find it. The brilliant Julie Walters stars in Personal Services, director Terry Jones’ comedy-drama about real life brothel owner Cynthia Payne.
We mustn’t also forget that it is Jamie Lee Curtis’ Ophelia who perhaps makes the most important “sale” in Trading Places when she agrees to help Dan Akroyd’s Louis in return for a cash reward.
Jamie Lee Curtis in Trading Places.
“I help you get back on your feet and you pay me, in cash, five figures. That’s the deal and it’s not subject to negotiation. Understood?,” she says.
Whether selling commodities or cars, whether stuck on the sales floor or heading out to hit customers door-to-door, the following 10 films give sales, and the people who work within this world, the dramatic stage on which to showcase both the best and worst of this dynamic, power-hungry industry.
Personal Services
Dir. Terry Jones (1987)
Perhaps it is the easiest sale of all time – it’s definitely the oldest – but Cynthia Payne’s small-time brothel “empire” is realised on screen in Terry Jones’ Personal Services which details her rise from a mother-of-one suffering financial strife to a successful madam hosting lucrative “special parties” for her paying guests.
Tommy Boy
Dir. Peter Segal (1995)
Featuring the eccentric talents of its instantly charming star Chris Farley, Peter Segal’s road movie comedy sees the son of a family business come to his late father’s aid to save the company from the hostilities of a money-grabbing trophy wife and her “son” (really her lover posing as her son). It’s all silly stuff and, importantly, very funny. A feelgood salesperson film about hitting the road to rekindle relationships with customers while establishing new leads.
Door To Door
Dir. Steven Schachter (2002)
This multi-Emmy Award winning TV movie was co-written by its star William H. Macy who plays Bill Porter, the real life inspirational door-to-door salesman who, having been told he was unemployable, beat the odds to become a success for household retailer Watkins. Macy is a tour de force as Porter, showing he was not just a great “closer” but how he overcame the toughest challenges to do so, and how persistence could be matched by customer care.
Death Of A Salesman
Dir. Volker Schlöndorff (1985)
Some will say this is the film that will put people off a career in sales. They’d be right if they were talking about people who had never experienced the job before. For those that have enjoyed some success in sales, it’s a drama that underlines the sacrifices one makes in the pursuit of success (in this case the American Dream), with a heartbreaking turn from Dustin Hoffman underlining the fact the goals we set ourselves aren’t always achievable. A “life ain’t fair” parable that rings so true.
Boiler Room
Dir. Ben Younger (2000)
Noted for its realism, this intimate contemporary view of the sales floor accurately displays the competitiveness that exists, the relationships that are built, the questionable friendships that are broken, the pace of learning and the pressures of hitting targets. While we see the darker side of the industry, similar to The Wolf of Wall Street, it’s still evident that honesty in sales can be your greatest asset.
Used Cars
Dir. Robert Zemeckis (1980)
Kurt Russell is at his charismatic best as a used car sales dealer who uses all kinds of quirky tactics to out pace a rival dealership across the road. It’s an amusing, lightweight take on sales tactics.
Cadillac Man
Dir. Roger Donaldson (1990)
It’s another film about a car salesman – this time a reserved and downbeat Robin Williams – whose desperation to get his life in order is precipitated by a two-day deadline to sell 12 cars or kiss his job goodbye.
When this tragic figure becomes the unwitting negotiator after an AK-47-wielding gunman holds his car dealership hostage, we see the power of persuasion that’s the ultimate salesperson’s weapon.
Tin Men
Dir. Barry Levinson (1987)
This tale of warring aluminium-siding salesmen is fronted by rivals Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss. The casting in Barry Levinson’s film couldn’t be better as the two Hollywood stars’ battle for sales supremacy impacts not just their professional lives but their private ones too. The competitiveness of the sales environment is writ large as the two “tin men” make their ambitions personal.
The Big Kahuna
Dir. John Swanbeck (1999)
The Big Kahuna will remind many of Glengarry Glen Ross. It stars Kevin Spacey (as another confident salesman) and was adapted for the screen from a stage play. It features the chase for a lead; a cautionary tale of putting all your eggs in the same basket as well as a distillation of goals versus moral convictions (in this case displayed as business versus religious faith).
Glengarry Glen Ross
Dir. James Foley (1992)
The greatest sales movie of all time. Glengarry Glen Ross is based on David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1984 stage play and tells the story of four real estate salesmen who are told only two of them will keep their jobs. What transpires is a story about a group of very different people – from the desperate and defeatist to the calm, confident and triumphant – who provide a microcosm of the entire sales community.
Discover More:
If you enjoyed some of these films about sales and salespeople you may also like movies inspired by the world of banking and finance:
Wall Street
Dir. Oliver Stone (1987)
Made at the height of 1980s materialistic America, if you wanted a time capsule of the era, Oliver Stone’s dissection of corporate greed in eighties New York City is perfect. The “yuppies”, personified by Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen’s money-hungry corporate raiders, are products of banking deregulation which freed the market to make more and more unethical moves.
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Dir. Martin Scorsese (2013)
Based on the real life memoirs of stock market “shark” Jordan Belfort (brilliantly played by Leonardo DiCaprio), The Wolf of Wall Street takes place mainly in the late 1980s and 1990s and details the debauched activities of Belfort and his cohorts as they commit what is known as the “pump and dump” scam.
The Big Short
Dir. Adam McKay (2015)
For those that know their subprime loans from their collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps, The Big Short will feel like a history lesson at nursery school. For everyone else (like me), it’ll be a reintroduction to the credit crunch; a neat and stylish stage from which we see the financial bubble grow before its inevitable burst.
Discover More
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