The GREATEST Movie Debate of ALL-TIME: DAVID MAMET EDITION!

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Willco

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DAVID MAMET: Underrated or Overrated?
 
Stuff David Mamet has directed

Spartan (2004)
"The Shield" (2002) TV Series (episode "Strays") (episode 3.11 "Strays" 18 May 2004)
Heist (2001/I)
Catastrophe (2000)
State and Main (2000)
The Winslow Boy (1999)
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Oleanna (1994)
Homicide (1991)
Things Change (1988)
House of Games (1987)

Stuff David Mamet has written

Spartan (2004) (written by)
Heist (2001/I) (written by)
Hannibal (2001) (screenplay)
State and Main (2000) (written by)
Lakeboat (2000) (play) (uncredited) (written by)
The Winslow Boy (1999) (screenplay)
Lansky (1999) (TV) (written by)
Ronin (1998) (screenplay) (as Richard Weisz)
Wag the Dog (1997) (screenplay)
The Spanish Prisoner (1997) (written by)
The Edge (1997) (written by)
American Buffalo (1996) (play) (screenplay)
Oleanna (1994) (play) (screenplay)
Texan (1994) (TV) (written by)
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
A Life in the Theater (1993) (TV) (play) (teleplay)
Hoffa (1992) (written by)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) (play) (screenplay)
The Water Engine (1992) (TV) (written by)
Homicide (1991) (written by)
Uncle Vanya (1991) (TV)
We're No Angels (1989) (written by)
Things Change (1988) (written by)
House of Games (1987) (screenplay) (story)
The Untouchables (1987) (written by)
About Last Night... (1986) (play Sexual Perversity in Chicago)
The Verdict (1982) (screenplay)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) (screenplay)
"Hill Street Blues" (1981) TV Series (writer) (episode "A Wasted Weekend")
A Life in the Theater (1979) (TV) (play)
 
I don't think Mamet can possibly be underrated. He is either rated or overrated.

His movies are spectacular.

But there's nothing more heinous than a bad performance of Mamet.
 
Damn...that's a hot list of credits. Glengarry Glenn Ross is the best pure dialouge movie I've ever seen, Untouchables, Ronin and Heist all rule, and I've been meaning to watch Wag the Dog for a while now.
 
I tend to think overrated-- he comes up empty at times-- but damn, when he is on, he's dead on. So: slightly overrated.

If only his work had the teensiest amount of soul.

Still, I am a fan and seek his stuff out. I didn't realize he wrote Ronin. That rocks. It didn't even feel "Mametish."

Faves: Glengarry Glen Ross, Vanya on 42nd St, Wag the Dog.

And everybody should see House of Games.
 
David Mamet is overrated in the sense that writers never get any credit in the industry if their name isn't David Mamet or Charlie Kaufman, but he does. But even though people do mention his name, it's still difficult to say the man who penned these screenplays;

Willco said:
Spartan (2004) (written by)
Wag the Dog (1997) (screenplay)
The Untouchables (1987) (written by)
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is "overrated".
 
I was forced to watch Wag the Dog today and I thought it sucked hard. What a lame movie with not one intelligent character, bizarre and inappropriate humor, and obvious and superficial discussions of both politics and Hollywood. There are some good points to be made about the whole political spin thing, but this film butchered them if it even tried and succeeded to do nothing but insult my intelligence and the intelligence of our species. Talk about appealing to the lowest common denominator...

Ugh, I had been meaning to watch it for a while but man, I'm not sure there was anything of worth there.
 
How could you not love "Fad King"?

Anyway, recall that Wag the Dog was written and released before the Clinton sex thing and the obsession with media spin. It seemed pretty fresh the time.
 
It came out just a few months before the Monica Lewinski thing broke (and the subsequent military action designed to distract). I recall because Levinson wrote an article in Time or newsweek called "We were only kidding!" In it, he reveals that the inspiration was not Clinton, but a supposed affair of Bush Sr that got swept past by the press via some distraction.
 
The guy is relatively unknown, and has an adjective after his name (Mametian, used very often by movie fans and critics). So, well, he's underrated for SURE. House of Games is a masterpiece, and Mamet is one of the few people who you can tell when he writes a movie script only from hearing the dialogue in it.

Dan said:
I was forced to watch Wag the Dog today and I thought it sucked hard. What a lame movie with not one intelligent character, bizarre and inappropriate humor, and obvious and superficial discussions of both politics and Hollywood. There are some good points to be made about the whole political spin thing, but this film butchered them if it even tried and succeeded to do nothing but insult my intelligence and the intelligence of our species. Talk about appealing to the lowest common denominator...

Ugh, I had been meaning to watch it for a while but man, I'm not sure there was anything of worth there.
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Holy cannoli. Wag The Dog is a great flick.
 
I think David Mamet is both underrated and overrated.

If you know anything about film, as Mike said, he's one of the few writers in Hollywood whose name is known by everyone. A lot of people proclaim him one of the best dialogue writers ever and that's what I think is extremely overrated. Lately in his career, he tends to churn out verbose scripts with dialogue that may sound smart to pseudo-intellectuals, but is not organic at all. You'd never hear people in real-life give the kind of drawn out speeches some of his characters do. I mean, if you know anything about film, Mamet's name is paraded about as the end-all, be-all for writers. In that respect, he's overrated.

(on a sidenote, I think considering Kaufman's still relatively short career, I'd rate Mamet over Kaufman, but Mamet's in danger of Kaufman's small, but solid and sometimes fantastic, body of work eclipsing his own)

A lot of people think Mamet can't be entertaining, and that's where he's underrated. He's put out plenty of purely entertaining films, with The Untouchables probably being the best example of this.

karasu said:
He's definitely underappreciated.
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By the mainstream? Probably so. But Mamet isn't begging for work and he's not a washed up nobody where it counts -- Hollywood.
 
Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine are in the top 10 of my favorite movies of all time, so I'd definitely rate Kaufman over Mamet, but that's just personal taste. Overall Mamet should probably be rated higher, if not just for his catalogue of work.
 
As a writer - underrated
As a director - overrated

Really, I don't care, but feel like saying this anyways. Mainly because Ronin kicks so much ass, I named my dog Ronin.
 
Willco said:
You'd never hear people in real-life give the kind of drawn out speeches some of his characters do.
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This is the POINT of Mamet's dialogues. They're always witty and they sound like some kind of poetic street language or something. They are NOT realistic dialogues. Most realistic dialogue is boring anyway. Who wants real life when watching a movie?
 
I love House of Games and Glengarry.

Neither underrated or overrated. I think the worlds estimation of him in terms of movie is spot on.
 
By the mainstream? Probably so. But Mamet isn't begging for work and he's not a washed up nobody where it counts -- Hollywood.
Click to expand...

Well of course he has his audience, just like any other indie demigod, but he's still largely unappreciated. When you say his name is known by everyone, I assume you mean cinephiles.
 
COCKLES said:
I love House of Games and Glengarry.

Neither underrated or overrated. I think the worlds estimation of him in terms of movie is spot on.
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IAWTP

Now, will you go to lunch!?
 
The man that creatively birthed Glengarry Glen Ross could never, EVAR be overrated. Quite simply one of the best movies of all time. And as the Final Arbiter of Good Taste, I'm right about that.
 
Raoul Duke said:
The man that creatively birthed Glengarry Glen Ross could never, EVAR be overrated. Quite simply one of the best movies of all time. And as the Final Arbiter of Good Taste, I'm right about that.
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A-MEN about that.

(Wow, he wrote the Untouchables?)
 
Mamet has some great credits to his name, but fuck me his writing is painful to sit through sometimes. Maybe it's just in the films that he has directed, but I've always found him very hit or miss. For that reason alone I would call him overrated, even though I appreciate his work a lot.

His wife is pretty hot too.
 
My wife is something of a Mametophile (she gave me the play Glengarry Glen Ross to read long before the movie came out) and she thinks he's neither over or under rated.
 
I love Mamet.
Like others said, his style of dialogue is unique, almost poetic, and it makes him stand out among other directors/writers. I first got hooked on Mamet after watching Heist, and then seeing Spartan, which was incredible. Glengarry Glen Ross, Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, etc., these are all amazing films.

He is most definately underrated in my eyes.
 
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