History Film / TheIdesOfMarch

* WhoElseHaveYouTold: [[spoiler: Hinted at. Morris attempts to lean on Stephen to gain Molly's suicide note. Stephen is able to brush him aside.]]

%%* [[BitchInSheepsClothing Bastard In Sheep's Clothing]]: [[spoiler:Morris]]

%%* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Mike Morris. Stephen by the end of the film.]]

* JailBait: {{Discussed|Trope}} by Molly and Stephen before they have sex for the first time. Stephen notices that Molly is very young, then he adds jokingly that having sex with a woman of 20 is frowned upon in Kentucky, but tolerated across the bridge, in Ohio.

* [[BitchInSheepsClothing Bastard In Sheep's Clothing]]: [[spoiler:Morris]]

* OnlySaneMan: Stephen could be seen as this.

* TitleDrop: Subverted. The film's working title of "Farragut North" gets name-dropped twice (it's where former campaign managers go when the campaign ends) while the film's actual title is never name dropped.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Mike Morris. Stephen by the end of the film.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: [[spoiler:Morris]] is married, but he had an affair with [[spoiler:Molly]].

* MarriedToTheJob: Stephen tells Morris that he is married to the Governor's campaign.

* FriendsWithBenefits: Or rather colleague with benefits in the case of Molly and Stephen. After they have sex for the first time, Stephen makes clear that Molly should not expect anything from this relationship.

** LiteraryAllusionTitle to [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] Theatre/JuliusCaesar, or more generally to the real-life assassination of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar.

** LiteraryAllusionTitle: From [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] Theatre/JuliusCaesar.

* WhatTheHellHero: Paul Zara calls Stephen for being disloyal because he met Tom Duffy, a rival campaign manager.

!!Tropes In The Film:

* DoubleStandard[=/=]JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife
-->"You broke the only rule in politics. You wanna be president? You can lie, you can cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't [[spoiler:fuck the interns]]. They get you for that."

* HollywoodAtheist: {{Averted}}. Morris is openly non-religious and states he cannot know if God or an afterlife exist, but also acts non-bitter, is entirely respectful of others' belief and states in the film that even if he doesn't share your religion, he'd fight to the death for your right to hold it. [[spoiler: Subverted as he's a power hungry scumbag underneath his tolerant rhetoric and ReasonableAuthorityFigure attitude.]]

* SleazyPolitician: [[spoiler:Morris is happy Stephen took care of the problem and doesn't really care howhe did it.]]

* XanatosGambit: Tom's plan -- as soon as Stephen walks into the bar, he wins. [[spoiler:Either Stephen takes the job, and their campaign gains an asset, or he turns it down and confesses to Paul, in which case he gets fired and is no longer a factor. The worst case scenario would be him turning down the job and keeping his mouth shut, in which case he'd be lying to his own colleagues, which would drive a wedge between them.]]

* SleazyPolitician: [[spoiler:Morris]]

* HollywoodAtheist: {{Averted}}. Morris is openly non-religious and states he cannot know if God or an afterlife exist, but also acts non-bitter, is entirely respectful of others' belief and states in the film that even if he doesn't share your religion, he'd fight to the death for your right to hold it.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Averted. Most of the film was shot in Clooney's childhood home of Cincinnati (bizarrely enough, the film's theatrical credits forgot to mention the city).

* HollywoodAtheist: {{Averted}}. George Clooney's character is openly non-religious and states he cannot know if God or an afterlife exist, but also acts non-bitter, is entirely respectful of others' belief and states in the film that even if he doesn't share your religion, he'd fight to the death for your right to hold it.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] Theatre/JuliusCaesar.

-->"you broke the only rule in politics. You wanna be president? You can lie, you can cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't [[spoiler:fuck the interns]]. They get you for that."

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:After the idealist Stephen discovers that Governor Mike Morris is a ManipulativeBastard, he goes through a lot of drama, only to continue helping Mike Morris win the Presidential race in the end - with him deciding to become a manipulative bastard himself.]]

** The posters also have taken inspiration from the BarackObama posters. (Believe, instead of hope, is the slogan.)

* AllStarCast

* DirectedByCastMember: Directed by Clooney himself.

* RealitySubtext: A conversation about what presidents can and cannot do is rather obviously comparing BillClinton to GeorgeWBush.
** The movie itself is about a [[BarackObama Democratic presidential candidate who promises revolutionary and necessary change to the country]] [[spoiler: yet proves himself to be just another product of a corrupt system little better than his predecessors]]. The original play was inspired by Howard Dean's 2004 campaign.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: LeonardoDiCaprio (who produced) and [[Film/StarTrek Chris Pine]] (who played the part onstage) were considered for the lead before Ryan Gosling was cast.
** BradPitt was signed on to play Paul Zara, but left due to scheduling conflicts with ''{{Moneyball}}'' and was replaced by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
* WorkingTitle: The film was originally named "Farragut North", after the play it was based on. The name change to "The Ides of March" seems to have been a late one as there is no relation to the actual title (unless one interprets it as a modern-day Theatre/JuliusCaesar).
** Actually, there is a reference to the fifteenth of March aka The Ides of March early in the film.

''The Ides of March'' is a 2011 political thriller, starring Creator/GeorgeClooney, Creator/RyanGosling, Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman, Creator/PaulGiamatti, Creator/MarisaTomei, Creator/JeffreyWright and Creator/EvanRachelWood. It was written and directed by [[DirectedByCastMember Clooney]] (with co-writers Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon), based on Willimon's play ''Farragut North''.