MovieChat Forums > The Ides of March (2011) Discussion > Was Stephen the real bad guy? SPOILERS.

Was Stephen the real bad guy? SPOILERS.

posted 8 years ago by whatwazdat
2 replies | jump to latest

-Morris committed adultery.
-Duffy played chess to perfection by moving Stephen like a pawn. You can argue, he played within the rules.
-Paul Zara did what was necessary to fire Stephen who got played by Duffy.

But Stephen, he was the one who screwed up the most. He fell for Duffy's trick and actually deserved to get fired by Paul Zara. But instead of owning it, he extorts everybody to get his job back, and Molly was the casualty of his personal war. She committed suicide because he dropped her off to the clinic and never bothered to keep her up to date throughout the day. She had to find her own ride home. She then found out about his firing and fears that he's going out guns blazing since he hasn't been returning her calls. She fears he will tell her secret to destroy Morris so she kills herself.

Did I get it? Is it that easy to sum up? Stephen is irresponsible bad guy, yes?

[–] goodfolk 8 years ago

I think the greater concept was how dirty politics are. Paul was the only one that could really be considered innocent. And even he had trust issues and acted in passive aggressive ways.

Stephen, while trying to be a good guy with values was brought down by the political game. In the end he wasn't any better than anyone else

[–] Black_Lies_Matter 8 years ago

I thought Paul was the only good guy. I absolutely bought his speech about loyalty being a person's only currency in politics, and thought he was just in firing Stephen.