David Mamet: what do we think about him?

He gave me an ugly and untalented kid!

Mary! Did he spawn a nepo-baby?

Republicans love him now.

His overrated plays are already well on their way to permanent residence in the dustbin of theatrical history.

At what point did he go full MAGA?

I read a book of short stories recently and in one of the stories, a film producer is pitching a new documentary called “Ten Seconds” in which Zosia Mamet will be cast as the main actress and she’ll be beheaded on camera at the end of the film (without her knowledge). The producer character describes her as “rat-faced” at one point and they tak about how the human brain would be able to still see through their eyes for ten seconds after being decapitated. It was really rather funny and reminded me of a pitch you might have heard in the movie NETWORK.

That's an interesting and quite revealing thought-piece you linked, OP. If I get the gist, Mamet's proposition is that Jews are maligned, discriminated against, used for "Holocaust Porn", et al, by Democrats because we have some disagreements over policy, and therefor no Jew should ever vote for a Democrat ever again, Republican desire to subjugate and/or kill Jews (and all minorities, but let's not discuss [italic]that[/italic] ) be damned. And certainly, let's ignore easily disprovable suppositions (Obama never met with the Israeli PM? Facts disagree; I guess Obama's work to prevent Iranian nukes was for naught, just as the Republicans claim).

Did Mamet miss the part where Republicans only like the Jews because Evangelicals think the rapture will happen in their lifetimes and [italic]all[/italic] Jews will be killed as a by-product?

I guess in Mamet's mind, you're either with 'em or against 'em and there's no room for nuance. And further, apparently, acceptance of Jews in America (“I’m a Congenital Democrat.”) is a bad thing; after all, the fact that the Senate Majority Leader and the Secretary of State are Jews is leaving them "in the Outer Office".

What utter drivel. Sad that a(nother) playwright's work is now tainted by MAGA myopia.

Glengarry was genius and all the other plays are shit.

[quote]New York Theatre, in my lifetime, had always been Jewish. The playwrights were Miller, Odets, Elmer Rice, Ben Hecht, Sidney Kingsley; and, later, Arthur Laurents, Lillian Hellman, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Wallace Shawn, and myself.

Strange list. Mailer wrote two plays, one an adaptation of his novel "The Deer Park." Neither was particularly successful, unlike his novels, essays, and reportage. Hellman's plays had very little to do with New York or, explicitly at least, Jewish culture. Hecht and Mamet himself are associated more with Chicago than New York, unlike, say, Kushner and Sondheim...

Mamet can no longer think, or write, rationally. He may have legitimate points to argue, but is incapable of taking off his MAGA blinders to do so reasonably and fairly. Anyone who can write an article on the current crisis without acknowledging Biden's unequivocal support for Israel (which itself has drawn the wrath of "the Squad") is not seriously presenting or analyzing the facts, just grinding an ax like a good GOP lackey.

I am a fan of Mamet's dialogue style. I am also a fan of his "stable" of actors (Lindsay Crouse's affectless mien suits these works).

Now Mamet sounds like those deluded Blacks who rail about the Democratic Party's "taking them for granted."

Well, most Blacks vote for Democrats just because they perceive the Republicans as enablers of white supremacy and Democrats act protectively toward black community. If there wasn't racial barriers, Republicans would be much closer ideologically to average black voter, who are mostly conservative, many of them religious, anti abortion, they oppose gay marriage and LGBT movement.

Right now, though Democrats are ideologically close to liberal Jews they are, perhaps not directly or consciously, enabling anti semitic resentments, while Republicans act as their unconditional protectors.

So, why would you resent Mamet of voting opportunistically in such a moment?

[QUOTE] I guess in Mamet's mind, you're either with 'em or against 'em and there's no room for nuance.

Basically. He entered "9/11 mode" a long time ago and never moved beyond that train of thought.

I think students are still assigned On Directing Film, regularly!

While Republicans act as their unconditional "protectors," like Mike Johnson...

Anne Baxter needs to shove Mamet off of an Egyptian balcony.

Uh, Obama and Biden have met repeatedly with Israel’s leadership and continued the policies of economic and military support, while questioning policy. They are not antiSemites.

I am a liberal Democrat. I do not necessarily equate as a whole all Jews and Israel. Israel is first a state and a government. I disagree with its handling of the Palestinian question. I disagree with the current governments tack away from democracy. I think Netanyahu is moving Israel into the position of an autocratic and theocratic state. These issues do not mean I’m antiSemetic. That I am opposed to Christian Nationalism in the US does not mean I dislike Christians of any type.

Is this so hard to understand?

Pretty sure it was Trump who had dinner with Kanye and Nick Fuentes, not "the Democrats"

I don't know much about Mamet and he sounds like he's embraced crank politics but I did enjoy his 90s early 00s movies.

Speaking as a British person who saw a culture of antisemitism consume the Labour Party I was impressed when Nancy Pelosi slapped down Ilhan Omar, clearly a virulent antisemite. I love how Nancy took on Corbyn as well, especially with the photo she picked for their meeting, when he looked like a sulking child who had been told he couldn't have any more pain au chocolat. Nancy also met Labour MPs who quit over Corbyn and she was smiling in that photo.

There was one British politician who said that Corbyn made her a Jew. She lived a secular life, married a non Jew, didn't raise her children with Jewish customs but under Corbyn she became "the Jewish MP".

So having seen that in the the UK I can understand why American Jews are feeling the same about a political party and academic organisations they supported and who they feel haven't got their backs right now. And just because Republicans engage with the far right with literal Nazis doesn't meant there isn't a serious problem on the left, which there clearly is as shown by the Hamas apologists who have no sense of fear over voicing their support.

“I am a liberal Democrat. I do not necessarily equate as a whole all Jews and Israel.”

How liberal and democratic of you! I feel very comforted that you don’t “necessarily” associate me, a reform Jew born and raised in the southern US, with Israel (a country where I’ve never been).

I haven’t seen any democrats painting swastikas on buildings or screaming “Jews will not replace us!”

[quote]I haven’t seen any democrats painting swastikas on buildings or screaming “Jews will not replace us!”

Have you seen left wing people ripping down posters of hostages, celebrating the "resistance" and "decolonisation", justifying the murder of young people "having a rave next to a concentration camp"?

Have you seen the hate that's being directed from left wing students towards Jewish students at universities?

I loved The Verdict. I loved Glengarry Glen Ross.

I hate his glasses.

He seems like a total dick.

And that's all I have to say about David Mamet.

Why is David Mamet doing appearances on MAGA media outlets?

He’s been bellicosely rightwing since 2008, R23. I think his diminishing relevance as a writer in his own lifetime and the election of Barack Obama basically sent him off the deep end - I think he viewed them both as deeply emasculating (a subject he’s always been obsessed with) and of America fundamentally rejecting him as a Jew.

Glengarry, House of Games, and (to a lesser extent) The Spanish Prisoner are very good.

He went full MAGA during the Trump years and can fuck right off.

He’s been this way for years.

[quote]New York Theatre, in my lifetime, had always been Jewish. The playwrights were Miller, Odets, Elmer Rice, Ben Hecht, Sidney Kingsley; and, later, Arthur Laurents, Lillian Hellman, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Wallace Shawn, and myself.

Tony Kushner's absence is doubly conspicuous, seeing as Kushner is 1) famously a critic of Israel and 2) an infinitely more talented dramatist than Mamet could ever hope to be.

Oleanna, The Spanish Prisoner, Spartan and House of Games are brilliant and very suspenseful.

Mamet has been like this since at least as far back as the W. Bush administration.

His response the the Felicity Huffman scandal amused me:

"I worked for very many years in and around our Elite Universities. I am able to report that their admissions policies are an unfortunate and corrupt joke.

Harvard was once sued for restricting the admission of qualified Jews; a contest currently being waged by Asians.

The unqualified may be accepted for many reasons, among them, as Legacies, and on account of large donations made by their parents. I do not see the difference between getting a kid into school by bribing the Building Committee, and by bribing someone else. But, apparently, the second is against the Law. So be it.

I’ve known and worked with Bill Macy for nearly fifty years. We started two theatre companies together, one of which, THE ATLANTIC is still in operation in New York, after 35 years. I’ve known Felicity Huffman for those 35 years, she was my student, my colleague, worked in many of my films, and created roles on stage in three of my plays.

I’m crazy about them both.

That a parent’s zeal for her children’s future may have overcome her better judgment for a moment is not only unfortunate, it is, I know we parents would agree, a universal phenomenon.

If ever there were a use for the Texas Verdict, this is it. For the uninitiated, the Texas Verdict is: “Not Guilty, but Don’t do it Again.”

--I have been licensed to practice law in Texas for 30 years, never heard of a Texas Verdict. Basically a variation of the narcissist belief that they are special and the rules don't apply to them.