'The Grift Has a Gentle Touch'... or Maybe Not?

This article analyses the character of the confidence man in David Mamet's work, especially in his films. These films can be considered as forming a subgenre of crime film, the confidence game thriller. I also try to show how Mamet's con men belong to a wider American archetype, the trickster figure. Nevertheless, Mamet's con artists should be distinguished from their more glamorous Hollywood counterparts. Indeed, Mamet's confidence men clearly reveal to have a darker, often more violent and often subversive character, when they push to the limit the rules of the capitalist game.