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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD THE IDES OF MARCH
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
Political expediency and intrigue make for fascinating cinema. Fans of this type
of cinema recall fondly one of the originals, All The King`s Men,
later made into many versions, the last being one where the word `King`s` was
replaced by `President`s`.
In all the versions of this movie, the rookie campaign manager loses to a smart
politician. What if he did not? What if nobody loses and nobody wins either.
The Ides of March based on a play `Farragut North` takes up this
theme from `All The King`s Men and explores it to its ruthless ends and
means.
Stephen (Ryan Gosling) is the junior campaign manager for governor Mike Morris
(George Clooney) who`s looking to win Ohio to guarantee him a presidential
nomination. Stephen is an idealist who works for Mike because he thinks this is
the man who can bring change the world needs.
Events unleash that threaten to run Mike down. As things get out of control, as
power struggle and political expediency intensifies, Stephen finds himself in
the middle of a scandal that he hadn`t anticipated and couldn`t control? Or can
he?
The Ides of March is a coming-of-age film of a young idealist in the
ruthless world of politics, of losing his virginity and innocence to the
intrigue and violence of the political world. The focus is not on politics and
the politicians, like in `All the King`s Men but on the rookie and his
reaction to things around him.
Clooney is an expert director with an immaculate sense of timing and subtlety.
Standing on the backside of a large American flag, Stephen contemplates his
idealism even as the US national anthem Star-Spangled Banner plays
on. The camera could have cut off, or panned out. But it hauntingly lingers on,
silently giving a glance into the mind of this idealist.
In another scene where an important character is to be fired, a man in the car
calls him inside for a minute and for that entire minute the camera just focuses
on the silent car as the man comes out and the job is done. In a normal
scenario, the director would have jumped the minute. Clooney chooses to linger
on thus heightening the tension of an important minute.
Many politically charged films, like Clooney`s directorial venture Good
Night and Good Luck or Syriana where he acted, attempt to
expose political intrigue and thus present the truth. Here, political corruption
is almost taken for granted, and it is the corruption of one idealistic
individual that becomes the focus.
A stellar cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giammati gives the
film an extra character. Ryan Gosling`s innocence works well for the film and
Clooney is his usual self.
In the ruthless world of politics, integrity is a political plank without the
remotest possibility of existence, deception is a rule and beauty and innocence
lie butchered at the altar of expediency. Thankfully there are films like `The
Ides of March` that remind us that it need not be so for cinema. Full marks to
Clooney for that.
