The Ides of March reconfigured

by Dilshan Boange

‘Beware the idea of March’ a soothsayer has said to Julius Caesar and thereby bodes ill on what it to ultimately unfold on that fateful day in the senate of Rome, as told in narratives of history as ones written by Plutarch and drama by Shakespeare.

March 15 is thus associated with misfortune. The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama film directed by George Clooney written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon. The movie stars Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Stephen Meyers played by Gosling is the junior campaign manager for Mike Morris, Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman in the Democratic primary. The battle is on for both camps to secure the endorsement of North Carolina Democratic Senator Franklin Thompson, who controls 356 convention delegates, enough to clinch the Democratic party presidential nomination.

After a debate at Miami University, Meyers is asked by Pullman’s Campaign Manager, to meet in secret. Meyers calls his boss, Senior Campaign Manager Paul Zara, who doesn’t answer. Although harbouring some doubts Meyers decides to meet Duffy, who offers Meyers a position in Pullman’s campaign, an offer Meyers refuses.

Zara calls Meyers back and asks what was important, but Meyers says it was nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Meyers starts an intimate relationship with Molly Stearns, an attractive intern for Morris’ campaign who later turns out to be the daughter of the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Candidate

When Meyers tells Zara that he met with Duffy, Zara becomes angered. Duffy had said his candidate will offer Thompson the position of Secretary of State, guaranteeing Pullman’s victory. Zara and Meyers discuss the matter with Morris, saying they must make the same offer to Thompson to secure his endorsement and his delegates’ votes.

Morris refuses on principle, as he thoroughly disagrees with Thompson and his policies, and wants a “clean” campaign without such deals. Late one night when Molly is sleeping, Meyers found that Morris is trying to call her after he picks up her phone by mistake.

Meyers finds out that Molly and Morris had a brief sexual encounter at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is now pregnant by Morris, which will cause a scandal.

Meyers helps her with money for an abortion but warns her not to tell anybody. Meyers also fires Molly from the campaign to ensure that she will stay quiet. Ida Horowicz, a reporter for the New York Times, reveals to Meyers that an anonymous source leaked his encounter with Duffy to her and that she will publish unless Meyers gives her all of the details about the meeting.

Campaign

Meyers comes to Zara for help, believing the story would damage himself, Zara, and the campaign. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida with Morris’ approval to force Meyers into resigning from the campaign, stating that he did this because Meyers was disloyal for meeting with Duffy.

Zara makes it clear that he holds no personal animosity against Meyers and values him, but cannot trust him anymore.

An angry and desperate Meyers then offers his services to Duffy, who admits he only met Meyers to influence his opponent’s operation in the likelihood that either Meyers would leave Morris and work for him or Zara would fire him. He said that he suspected that Meyers would tell Zara about the meeting which would lead Zara to remove Meyers from Morris’ campaign.

Should this happen, Duffy correctly surmised, the Morris campaign would be weakened and, as a result, Pullman’s would be strengthened. Duffy says as his goal was met when Zara fired Meyers there was no point to hiring Meyers.

This sneaky manoeuvring leaves Meyers angry at how he has been played political leeway, but Duffy apologises for using him, saying that he also wanted to help Meyers, and advises him to quit the politics and campaign before he turns as a cynical, radical person like him.

Meyer offers to sell Morris completely but Duffy declines, thinking that Meyers cannot hurt him and he has Thompson wrapped up. Meanwhile, Molly learns that Meyers has been fired and, fearing that he will reveal her pregnancy, takes a fatal drug overdose. Since both sides used him, Meyers goes on the offensive against both as revenge.

Affair

Unbeknownst to the Morris campaign, he meets Thompson to arrange for Thompson’s delegates in exchange for a spot on the Morris ticket.

It is clear that Thompson prefers Morris over Pullman so all Meyers has done is get Thompson to commit if he is offered the post with Morris.

Meyers meets Morris in a dark bar, telling him that he will expose the affair with Molly if Morris does not accept his demands: fire Zara, place Meyers in charge of the campaign, and offer Thompson the role of Vice President.

Morris coldly says that, since the foetus was aborted, there is no proof of the affair, but Meyers claims that he has a suicide note found in Molly’s room. Morris relents, clearly giving up what is left of his personal integrity, and meets all Meyers’s demands.

Zara takes his firing philosophically and is still positive with the press about Morris.

Zara talks to Meyers at Molly’s funeral and is amicable, letting Meyers know that he knows Meyers must have had something big on Morris to get him to fire Zara and hire him.

Later, Thompson’s endorsement makes Morris the de facto nominee despite losing the Democratic Party’s Ohio primary election. Duffy, who put Meyers back against the wall and who rejected Meyers offer of dirt against Morris, is seen trying to put up a good face in what is now obviously going to be a defeat for his candidate.

Now Senior Campaign Manager, Meyers is on the way to a remote TV interview with John King, when Ida ambushes him and says her next story will be about how Meyers delivered Thompson and his delegates and got his promotion. Meyers reacts only by having security bar her from coming any further.

Meyers takes his seat for the interview, just as Morris completes a speech about how ‘integrity and dignity’ matters.

Political animalism at its finest one may say, executed in the sleekness of a paper cut that moves silently and unnoticed across the screen of American democracy.