• “The Ides of March,” Directed by George Clooney, Cross Creek Pictures, 102 minutes, released Oct. 7.
Who watches political movies these days? At first glance, not many. On the rainy Wednesday afternoon I viewed George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” there were three other people in the theater with me. Of course that’s the time of day most people who had real jobs were at them, but hey, when you’re a freelancer, work is work.
An anecdote may not signal a trend, but according to the website Box Office Mojo, political movies released since 1978 (anyone remember Alan Alda in “The Seduction of Joe Tynan”?) have grossed a total of just over $674 million.
To be sure, these box office numbers exclude two relative blockbusters, Robert Redford’s “The Candidate,” and the Redford vehicle “All the President’s Men.” Both movies were made before 1978, which is outside Mojo’s parameters.
Still, as of this writing, “The Ides of March” had pulled in $23 million at the box office, nearly double the movie’s $12 million production budget. (By comparison, “Paranormal Activity 3” brought in $54 million during its opening weekend.) No doubt any movie with strong political overtones, and a charismatic star like Clooney, should pull in even more in rentals as the presidential primaries heat up.
I have to give Clooney credit — although he’s known as one of the leading liberal voices of Hollywood, the man knows how to make a good movie on a tight budget.
Clooney caused quite a stir here in North Carolina when he filmed his football flick “Leatherheads” in locations around the state, including many scenes at Greensboro’s War Memorial Stadium.
Clooney has become a master of scouting low-budget locations for his movies. For “The Ides of March,” he chose a location he knows well: his hometown of Cincinnati. I’m a big Reds fan and have visited Cincinnati often, so it was fun to see many of the Queen City’s landmarks as the backdrop.
And watching the movie was not like work, as I feared. It is based on the original play “Farragut North,” which focused on a tight Democratic presidential primary between two fictional rivals. The play is centered in Iowa, traditionally a battleground state; Clooney moved the setting to Ohio, also a key state, as the 2004 presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry illustrated.
At first, the movie starts slow, appearing to be a basic workmanlike profile of a political campaign. Volunteers work too hard, drink too much coffee, travel from city to city, plot strategies, shout into cell phones, play the media, try to stay one step ahead of the competition, work potential endorsements.
In this case, a popular liberal governor, Mike Morris (Clooney) works to take Ohio and thus secure the nomination. During the first part of the movie, Morris is on the fringes as his campaign strategists Steven Myer and Paul Zara (Ryan Gosling and Phillip Seymour Hoffmann) plot strategy. Myer is the young up-and-coming whiz kid while Zara is the hardened campaign veteran who started his career running a state senate campaign in the sticks.
But it was during that campaign that Zara learned the lesson of loyalty, and he expected no less from his employees.
However, Myer’s loyalty is tested when he is by rival campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti).
Intrigued, Myer agrees to meet with Duffy, who offers him a job. Steven rejects the offer, but the fact that he even met with Duffy would be enough for Zara to question his loyalty.
The possibility of a hot political consultant switching sides would be great media fodder if the word ever got out. Indeed, a determined New York Times reporter Ida Horowicz (Marisa Tomei) gets the scoop. The question is who leaked the secret meeting between Myer and Duffy.
Things get even more complicated when Myer begins a romantic relationship with a young campaign volunteer (Evan Rachel Wood). Myer thinks he’s falling for her when a cell phone mix-up reveals a cryptic voicemail from the governor. (I don’t want to spoil the movie, but I’ll give you a hint: Think John Edwards.)
In the meantime, the leaker is exposed, prompting Zara to fire Steven. Myer immediately crawls over to the other side, where Duffy gives him a brutal lesson about the ways of big-time politics. Bottom line: Some survive the bloodbath, other don’t.
The timing of the movie’s release is interesting. A September date with the month of March in the title — no matter the title’s broader meaning — is an odd launch date. Perhaps the message — that even liberals with pristine personas can roll around in the political muck — is a risky one for the upcoming presidential campaign.
Clooney’s Mike Morris is not a sympathetic character, and he turns darker as the movie progresses. To portray a Democratic political candidate in such a light could risk a pox-on all-their-houses reaction from swing voters. They might seek out a candidate who claims to be above the political fray. But splitting swing voters among various challengers could leave a weak incumbent in a more favorable position.
By the same token, the big-screen release date has much less meaning in the world of Red Box and Netflix. No doubt politically savvy viewers will be streaming the video in mass numbers just as the Republican primaries are shaking out.
Then again, it’s hard to believe anyone would think a movie could sway voters one way or the other? It’s just made-up Hollywood fantasy, isn’t it?