PG | 1h 52min | Drama, Crime, Mystery, Thriller | 6 October 1998 (USA)
With a style so unique it has its own name (“Mamet-Speak”), playwright-turned-screenwriter-turned-director David Mamet is best known for his barbed, machine gun dialogue, adorned with thickets of carefully positioned profanity.
Although many Mamet-written movies feature women characters, rarely are they the leads. His strength lies is in creating testosterone-drenched friction between men, best displayed in films such as “The Verdict,” “The Untouchables,” “Wag the Dog,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” and “American Buffalo.”
Atypical Mamet
“The Spanish Prisoner” (TSP) found Mamet heading (if only temporarily) in a direction few could have foreseen. The pace was slower and more deliberate, the dialogue was softer and, most surprising, there’s not a single drop of foul language….