David Mamet's "Edmond"

David Mamet’s Edmond is opening to limited release in New York and Chicago this month. The plot? “A fortune-tellers teasing rumination sends Edmond Burke lurching into New York City's hellish underworld.”

Stephen Holden in the New York Times writes, “In Edmond, William H. Macy is perfectly cast as a prim Manhattan businessman who heeds his inner demons and plummets into free fall.”

"It's hilarious, and contains some of Mamet's best dialogue," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Somehow, by making a racist, murderous, Everycreep his protagonist, Mamet is able to produce some of his most penetrating psychological and spiritual insights."

In celebration of Mamet’s flare for crackling American dialogue, how about we read a scene from Edmond and then watch it? (There's always a difference in the way a scene sounds in your head when you first read it and the way it sounds when a pair of great actors pull it off.)


INT. BAR - NIGHT

[cont’d]

EDMOND and the MAN turn around to look at a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN who enters. She smiles at them and looks around the bar.

Her BOYFRIEND walks up to her.

BOYFRIEND
Hey.

He leads her away. They turn back around.

MAN
...because the pressure is too much.

EDMOND
What do you do?

MAN
What do you mean?

EDMOND
What do you do to get out?

MAN
What do I do?

EDMOND
Yeah.

MAN
What are the things to do? What
are the things anyone does? Pussy?
I don’t know. Pussy. Power.
Money. Adventure. I think that’s it...
(takes a drag)
Self destruction. I think that
that’s it. Don’t you?

EDMOND
Yes.

MAN
Religion. Um, I suppose that’s
it... Release. Gratification.
You gotta get out. Get something
that opens your nose. Life is too
short.

EDMOND
My wife and I are incompatible.

MAN
I’m sorry to hear that. In what way?

EDMOND
I don’t find her attractive.

MAN
Mmm...

EDMOND
And she hates my guts.

MAN
Mmm...

EDMOND
It’s a boring thing to talk about,
but that’s what’s on my mind.

MAN
I understand.

EDMOND
You do?

MAN
Yes.

EDMOND
Thank you.

MAN
Believe me. It’s all right. I
know that we all need it. We don’t
know where to find it. I know what
it means, and I understand.

EDMOND
I feel --

MAN
I know, like your balls were cut off.

EDMOND
Yes. A long, long time ago. And I
don’t feel like a man.

MAN
Do you know what you need?

EDMOND
No.

MAN
You need to get laid.

EDMOND
I do. I know I do.

Now watch the scene…

Downloadable Windows Media Hi-res [3.72 MB] and Lo-res [838 KB]