The Ides of March: The Politics of POLITICS.

Politics. It’s funny how we are so charmed by politicians and think of them as our saviors and yet, when we hear this word in another context, office politics for example, it is a negative connotation. I personally started making this association a while back, hence my disregard for politics of any kind. In reality, the world has accepted ‘politics’ as the rule of law – as something that people should be good at. Me, I have never been able to get the hang of it and that is what I blame my indifference on.

Watching The Ides of March movie made me realize I wasn’t that far off. From the lady journalist who cares more about ‘breaking a story’ than she does about the environment or people dying in wars to the ruthless opponents who constantly think about what will give them a good win over another candidate rather than what they can do to make the world, or at least their own country, a better place. If I was writing somewhere else these paragraphs would probably be considered ‘fluff’ and some other writer/reviewer would have already be hired, but thankfully this is my blog. So there

My intense dislike for politics notwithstanding, I really want to write the Ides of March review now and I have to admit, it was a wonderful experience watching this one. The Ides of March is known in history as the date Julius Caesar was murdered by conspirators inside the Roman Senate. If you remember the depiction of that scene in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, you may recall a soothsayer warning Caesar: “beware the Ides of March.” The movie is like a reference to that event because it follows the ‘murder conspiracy’ surrounding Mike Morris.

IDES OF MARCH: The Politics of Politics.
The film starts beautifully. Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), the junior campaign manager for presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney) is doing a mic check. He and his boss senior campaign manager Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) have evidently prepared the speech. It is a touching speech, unique, witty and direct.

When the Governor does his public appearance, Stephen and Paul are seen talking to a journalist from TIME magazine who is cynical about presidents claiming to care for the country but Stephen seems adamant that this governor is different from the rest and that he does believe in doing the right thing.

The story is more about the experience of politics from the eyes of a newcomer, Stephen has big dreams and big hopes from the campaign. Soon though, they start to realize things are not going to be as simple as they thought. When it comes time to choose politics over principles, everyone has to make one choice and one choice only: this movie is all about that choice.

About how different people behave under the same circumstances and whether they choose the right thing to do or do something that eventually benefits themselves. Ryan Gosling is extremely convincing as the young and dreamy eyed Stephen, new to the world of politics. Clooney has made more of a cameo appearance but he comes across as a genuine presidential candidate with morals.

It’s not a literal murder, just a figurative annihilation of Mike Morris’ character and principles. It’s about whether the conspirators who want Morris to give up his character will come on top or will the Morris be the one to win. It’s about whether the human inside of Morris will die to allow a politician to resurface. The movie has plenty of good dialogue but this one really stood out for me:

“Because you broke the only rule in politics.

You wanna be president?

You can start a war; you can lie, you can cheat, you can bankrupt the country…

but you cant f**k the interns.”

Clooney has certainly come out a winner as a writer/director and the film has already won the Brian Award at the Venice Film Festival and is nominated for the 2012 Golden Globes: Best Director (George Clooney), Best Performance by an Actor (Ryan Gosling) and Best Screenplay (Clooney, Willimon & Hesloy). You can Watch the Ides of March movie online free. The original stage play, Farragut North is penned by Beau Willimon which might seem to be in favor of Democrats, but prejudices aside, that’s hardly what the story is about.