The Ides of March Information

The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama film directed by George Clooney from a screenplay written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon. The film is an adaptation of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North. It stars Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei and Jeffrey Wright.

The Ides of March was featured as the opening film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and at the 27th Haifa International Film Festival and was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. It received a wide theatrical release on October 7, 2011.

Plot

Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is the junior campaign manager for Mike Morris (George Clooney), Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman (Michael Mantell) in the Democratic primary. The candidates are campaigning in Ohio. Both campaigns are attempting to secure the endorsement of North Carolina Democratic Senator Franklin Thompson (Jeffrey Wright), who controls 356 convention delegates, enough to clinch the nomination for either candidate.

After a debate at Miami University, Meyers is asked by Pullman's campaign manager, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), to meet in secret. Meyers calls his boss, senior campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who doesn't answer. Meyers leaves a message that something important has come up. 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 a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood), an attractive intern for Morris' campaign and daughter of Jack Stearns (Gregory Itzin), the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Meyers admits to an angry Zara that he met with Duffy, and that Duffy said his candidate, Pullman, 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 discovers that Morris is trying to call her after he picks up her phone by mistake. Molly and Morris had a brief sexual liaison at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is now pregnant by the Governor, 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 (Marisa Tomei), 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 information about his meeting with Duffy. Meyers comes to Zara for help, believing the story would damage himself, Zara, and the campaign. Zara reveals that in fact he leaked the meeting to Ida with Morris' approval in order to force Meyers into resigning from the campaign, stating that he did this because Meyers was disloyal for meeting with Duffy.

An angry Meyers then offers his services to Duffy, who admits he only met with Meyers in order to influence his opponent's operation and had no intention of hiring him. 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. Meyers is angry with such usage, but Duffy apologizes for this and advises him to quit politics before he turns to be cynical like him. 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. Unbeknownst to the Morris campaign, he meets with Thompson to arrange for Thompson's delegates in exchange for a spot on the Morris ticket. Meyers confronts Morris, 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 fetus 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 and meets all of Meyer's demands (with Zara's dismissal spun by all parties as a resignation caused by the loss of the Ohio primary). Later, at Molly's funeral, Zara compliments Meyers on his skill in using secrets to his advantage. Later, Thompson's endorsement (and delegates) makes Morris the de facto nominee despite losing the Democratic Party's Ohio primary election (which Morris claims was lost only because the state's open primary allowed Republicans and Independents to vote in it and thereby sabotage it by choosing the weaker Democrat).

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 finishes a speech about how 'integrity and dignity' matters, and is asked for insight as to how the events surrounding the primary unfolded. The film ends before he answers, leaving it open to the audience's interpretation.

Cast

• Ryan Gosling as Stephen Meyers, Morris' junior campaign manager, then senior campaign manager.
• George Clooney as Mike Morris, Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Paul Zara, Morris' campaign manager and Meyers' superior and mentor.
• Paul Giamatti as Tom Duffy, a rival campaign manager.
• Evan Rachel Wood as Molly Stearns, an intern for Morris' campaign.
• Marisa Tomei as Ida Horowicz, a reporter for the New York Times.
• Jeffrey Wright as Democratic Senator Franklin Thompson from North Carolina.
• Max Minghella as Ben Harpen, a member of Morris' campaign staff.
• Jennifer Ehle as Cindy Morris, wife to Governor Mike Morris.
• Gregory Itzin as former Senator Jack Stearns, father of Molly Stearns and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
• Michael Mantell as Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman, Morris' opponent in the Democratic primaries.
• Hayley Meyers as the 'replacement' intern.

Production

In October 2010, Variety reported that Clooney signed on to produce, direct, and star in the film adaptation of Beau Willimon's Broadway play Farragut North. Exclusive Media Group, Cross Creek Pictures, Smoke House Pictures, and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions financed the film. Filming in Cincinnati, Ohio began in February 2011 in Downtown Cincinnati at Fountain Square, Over-the-Rhine historic district, Northside, Mount Lookout, Xavier University, other neighborhoods and at Miami University's Farmer School of Business and Hall Auditorium (Miami University and Hall Auditorium are located in Oxford, Ohio). Principal photography also took place in Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. On March 14, filming began at the University of Michigan and included 1,000 extras.

The theatrical release failed to recognize Cincinnati in the credits as a filming location. Producer and screenplay co-writer Grant Heslov said that "the omission of Cincinnati in the credits was an inadvertent mistake, something that slipped through the cracks." He also stated that the credits would be corrected for the home release of the film.

Release

The Ides of March premiered on August 31, 2011 as the opening film of the 68th Venice International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Entertainment bought the distribution rights for the United States and Canada. Sony wanted Clooney to keep the play's title, but The Ides of March was finalized. The Ides of March was originally planned to have a limited release in December 2011 and a wide release in January 2012. However, Sony eventually moved the film's opening date to October 14, 2011. This was later moved again, to October 7, 2011.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 85% of 190 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 67 based on 43 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Nevertheless, some critics gave the film mixed or even negative reviews. One such mixed review came from A. O. Scott, who wrote that "it is difficult, really, to connect this fable to the world it pretends to represent. Whatever happens in 2012, within either party or in the contest between them, it seems fair to say that quite a lot will be at stake. That is not the case in The Ides of March, which is less an allegory of the American political process than a busy, foggy, mildly entertaining antidote to it."

Accolades

List of awards and nominations

Awards Group	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result
84th Academy Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay	George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon
65th British Academy Film Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Philip Seymour Hoffman
Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Acting Ensemble
Casting Society of America	Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Studio or Independent Drama Feature	Ellen Chenoweth, Amelia McCarthy
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards	Best Film
	Best Adapted Screenplay
	Best Ensemble
	Actor of the Year	George Clooney
	Actor of the Year	Ryan Gosling
David di Donatello Awards	Best Foreign Film
68th Venice International Film Festival.	Brian Prize
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards	Best Film " International
	Best Screenplay " International	George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
	Best Actor " International	Ryan Gosling
69th Golden Globe Awards	Best Picture " Drama
	Best Director	George Clooney
	Best Actor " Drama	Ryan Gosling
	Best Screenplay	George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Hollywood Movie Awards	Hollywood Editor Award	Stephen Mirrione
National Board of Review	Top Ten Films
Palm Springs International Film Festival	Chairman's Award	George Clooney
Producers Guild of America Award	Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures	George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver
World Soundtrack Awards 2012	Best Score of the Year	Alexandre Desplat
	Best Soundtrack Composer of the Year	Alexandre Desplat

See also

• Politics in fiction