Coates: The Ides of March

The Ides of March was... scandalous. The movie is about press secretary, Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling :) who works for Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney).  The movie shows the "behind the scenes" view of a political campaign. Director, George Clooney also inputs his own political views throughout the movie.

 One main one that is clearly stated to me is the issue of abortion.  It is mentioned in the beginning of the movie during a press conference, but is then brushed aside to another topic. The plot almost revolves around it because of what happened to Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood).  The governor and Molly clearly did not take the campaign into thought in this moment of passion, so as a result, she got pregnant.  Had they clearly thought about their actions beforehand, the rest of the movie would have been shot.  Since they did not consider their actions, the pregnancy lead to a chain of events in this movie.  When Stephen found out and took Molly to the "women's health center," (I hate how they call it that, they should just live up to the fact that it's an abortion center) it became a political problem more than a moral problem. He cheated on his wife and she had to deal with the fact that it was against her and her family's beliefs. I almost thought that she was going to keep the baby and walk out of the abortion clinic. It would have made the movie have a greater impact because 1. it would morally be the right thing to do 2. Molly may not have killed herself or accidentally overdosed on the medicine that the abortion clinic gave her.  Personally, I do not agree that using the pregnancy as blackmail was right either.

In the beginning, Morris seemed to be a good and honest man, but in the end, it showed that he clearly cannot live up to his responsibilities. What kind of husband, father, or president will he be if he has to lie or cheat to become the president?  Clearly, in the end of the movie, Stephen Meyers has some explaining to do about how he got to the position he is in.  If he does, then Mike Morris will surely have a lot of explaining to do.
















oh, and this is probably one of the best scenes in the movie: it made me laugh!
http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/theidesofmarch/clips/4051/
hehe :)