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Scarecrow Video recommendations for "The Ides of March"

05.10.11

Political thrillers are a dime a dozen, but political dramas are not only rare but rarely any good. Something about Hollywood's tendency to belabor and oversimplify its points doesn't mesh well with the genre; these films thrive on ambiguity and moral relativism. Not to mention that we've all grown pretty cynical about politics these days; nothing much shocks us anymore.

This week we get the release of George Clooney's latest directorial effort, "The Ides of March" . Based on the play "Farragut North" by Beau Willimon, it stars Ryan Gosling as an idealistic campaign staffer for supposedly real-deal candidate Clooney. We haven't seen it yet, but a crash-course in dirty tricks and assorted political skullduggery for our young hero doesn't seem like a stretch. If you're hungry for more, try these:

The great comic filmmaker Preston Sturges's 1940 satire "The Great McGinty" features Brian Donlevy as the titular McGinty, a lowlife who impresses a gangster and finds himself a willing and effective tool of a corrupt political machine. As he rises through the ranks of city government, he enters into a marriage of convenience with Catherine (Muriel Angelus), a kind-hearted woman who slowly begins to turn her husband into an honest man. Sturges never made a bad film (nor did he direct all that many, unfortunately), but this is one of his lesser-known efforts, unsurprisingly a delight.

Source: The Seattle Times