Parsons: Democracy in State of Play

In the film State of Play the main character, Cal, is uncovering what he believes is a conspiracy of the government and private defense companies to monopolize National Security. Though the plot ends up revolving around a scandalous politician and his dead mistress, the audience is still very aware of the political ramifications of the private defense companies. One of the interesting things that this movie brings about is the idea of companies having all the rights that individuals have. Though large corporations are a large group of people working to make money, the Senate recently stated that corporations are like individuals and can do anything an individual can do. A way that this changes democracy, is that these large companies can now give Presidential candidates large sums of money to support their campaign. This gives certain politicians a boost over others because more money means more tours and publicity. This can sway the opinions of American voters, changing the way democracy works.

In the film, a scene that shows the monopolization of these private defense companies is when Cal goes to MediaCore, and finds that it is just a set of empty offices. He finds out that MediaCore is just an umbrella group for PointCore to buy up different private defense companies. This scene is really key to this building conspiracy against PointCore and the government. This leads in to when Cal finds out that another Congressman was paid by PointCore to hire a spy for the Senator. This congressman was given support by this company and he was able to fund his campaign and get reelected. This shows how these corporations are changing the way democracy works. They are funding the way Americans view politicians and ultimately changing the way Americans vote.