百年50部英文烧脑电影赏析:[38]State of Play 国家要案

One night, a thief fleeing through Georgetown in Washington, D.C. is shot by a man carrying a briefcase. A pizza delivery man who witnesses the incident is also shot by the killer and is left in a coma. The following morning, a young woman is killed by a Washington Metro train in an apparent suicide. Congressman Stephen Collins（Ben Affleck）of Pennsylvania is distraught to hear the news, he claims because the woman was Sonia Baker（Maria Thayer）, a lead researcher on his staff. Collins, who has military experience, is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor with controversial operations involving mercenaries. Collins tells his old friend Cal McAffrey（Russell Crowe）, an investigative reporter, that he had been having an affair with Sonia and that she had sent him a cheerful video message on the morning of her death, which he says is inconsistent and unusual behavior for someone about to commit suicide. Della Frye（Rachel McAdams）, a reporter and blogger with the online division of Cal's newspaper and its editor, Cameron Lynne（Helen Mirren）, discover that Sonia's death occurred in one of only three CCTV blind spots in the Metro camera system. Cal believes the shootings are related to Sonia's death and finds a link between the petty thief and a homeless girl who sought out Cal. The homeless girl gives him photographs that the thief, a friend of hers, had stolen from the killer's briefcase. The photos show surveillance images of Sonia talking to a well-dressed man. Della visits the hospital where the pizza delivery man is regaining consciousness. While at his room she witnesses the pizza delivery man shot dead by an unseen sniper. Later, she reviews CCTV footage and recognizes a man she saw at the hospital.
It is revealed that PointCorp stands to gain $40 billion annually from its mercenary activities in the Middle East and domestically. Cal speaks with Collins, who shares his research findings — PointCorp is cooperating with other defense contractors to create a monopoly and purchase government surveillance and defense contracts, essentially privatizing United States security from the government. Cal's PointCorp insider returns with the address of someone linked to the suspected assassin. Cal finds the assassin living there and calls the police, who force the man to disappear after he shoots at Cal.
Della, following a close lead, finds the identity of the well-dressed man who was speaking to Sonia in the listed photographs. He is Dominic Foy（Jason Bateman）, a PR executive working for a subsidiary of PointCorp. Cal blackmails him into talking about his activities with Sonia and secretly tapes their conversation. The PR executive reveals that Sonia was actually paid to spy on Collins and seduce him to get informations for PointCorp, but then she fell in love with Collins and she was already pregnant with his child when she was killed.
Before Cal's newspaper goes to press, Collins goes on record to present his research into PointCorp. Collins' wife Anne（Robin Wright Penn）reveals that she knows the amount of money Sonia received from PointCorp, after just hearing Collins' statement to the newspaper. After the couple leaves, Cal realizes that Collins knew already that Sonia was working for PointCorp. Cal then wonders what Collins would have done had he known he had been tricked and whether Collins himself is connected with Sonia's assassin. A picture of Collins from his military days, with the assassin in the frame, confirms Cal's hunch. Collins reveals that he had been suspicious of Sonia, and that he hired the assassin to watch her. The assassin is U.S. Army Corporal Robert Bingham（Michael Berresse）, whose life Collins had once saved. Collins says that Bingham hated PointCorp more than he did and he killed Sonia with no authorization from him.
Cal tells Collins that he has three minutes to leave his office before the police arrive, as he has already contacted them. As he leaves the building, Cal is confronted by Bingham. Officers arrive and shoot Bingham before he opens fire. Cal leaves and goes to his office. There, Cal and Della type up their own story, noting that Collins was secured and arrested.
一天晚上，一个在华盛顿特区乔治城的在逃小偷被一个拿着手提箱的人开枪杀死。一个目睹了这件事的披萨送货员也被凶手击中陷入昏迷。第二天早上，一个年轻的女人被一列华盛顿地铁撞死，看上去是自杀。宾夕法尼亚州的议员斯蒂芬·柯林斯（本·阿弗莱克饰）为这个消息抓狂，他声称这是因为这个女人是索尼娅·贝克（玛利亚·泰耶尔饰），她是他手下一个重要的研究员。有军事经验的柯林斯正在带队调查顶点集团，这是一个涉及雇佣兵并进行广受争议的经营的私人国防承包商。柯林斯告诉他的老朋友，一个调查记者卡尔·麦克阿弗里（罗素·克劳饰），他和索尼娅有私情，并且在她死的那天早上，索尼娅还给他发了一个愉快的视频信息，他说这在一个打算自杀的人身上是矛盾和不寻常的。 黛拉·弗莱（瑞秋·麦克亚当斯饰）是卡尔所在报社网上部门的记者兼博主，她和编辑卡梅伦·林恩（海伦·米伦饰）发现索尼娅死在地铁摄像系统闭路电视仅有的三个盲点中的一个。卡尔认为当天的射击与索尼娅的死有关系，并且发现了小偷与找到卡尔的无家可归的女孩之间的联系。这个无家可归的女孩将那个小偷从凶手手提箱里偷来的照片给了卡尔。这个小偷是她的一个朋友。这些照片显示了索尼娅和一个穿着考究的男人对话的监视图象。黛拉拜访了重新恢复意识的披萨送货员所在的医院。然而，在送货员的房间里，她发现他被一个看不见的狙击兵杀死了。稍后，她回顾了闭路电视的连续录像，认出了她在医院看见的一个男人。
据披露，顶点集团每年都可以从中东和国内的雇佣活动中获得400亿美元的收益。卡尔与柯林斯交谈，柯林斯与他分享调查发现，原来顶点集团正在和其他的国防承包商合作来形成垄断，购买政府的监督防御合同，本质上是将美国的安全从政府那里私有化了。卡尔在顶点集团的内线带回了与刺客嫌疑人有联系的某人的地址。卡尔发现刺客在那里生活，并且叫来了警察，在刺客向卡尔开枪之后，警察的出现让刺客被迫消失了。

黛拉跟踪一个亲近的领导，发现了列出的照片中与索尼娅交谈的衣着考究的男人的身份。他是多米尼克·佛伊（杰森·贝特曼饰），顶点集团的一个子公司的公关经理。卡尔勒索他，让他说出他和索尼娅的活动，并且偷偷将他们的对话录音了。这个公关经理透露说，实际上索尼娅是被雇来监视并引诱柯林斯的，以便为顶点集团获取信息，但是她爱上了柯林斯，当她被杀的时候，她已经怀了他的孩子。
在卡尔的报纸付印之前，柯林斯公开表明要介绍他对于顶点集团的调查。听了柯林斯在报纸上的声明之后，柯林斯的妻子安妮（罗宾·莱特·潘饰）指出，她知道索尼娅从顶点集团得到了多少钱，这对夫妻离开后，卡尔意识到柯林斯早已知道索尼娅是为顶点集团工作的。卡尔想知道柯林斯知道自己被骗之后做过什么，他是否也与暗杀索尼娅有关联。柯林斯当兵时代的一张有暗杀者在其中的照片证实了卡尔的预感。柯林斯坦白说他已经在怀疑索尼娅，并且雇佣了暗杀者去监视她。这个暗杀者是美国陆军下士罗伯特·宾汉姆（迈克尔·比利斯饰），柯林斯曾经救过他的命。柯林斯说宾汉姆比自己更恨顶点集团，他在未经自己许可的情况下杀死了索尼娅。
卡尔告诉柯林斯，在警察到来之前，他有三分钟可以离开他的办公室，因为他已经联系警察了。当他离开这幢楼时，卡尔碰到了宾汉姆。警察们来了，并且在宾汉姆开枪之前开枪了。卡尔离开，回到自己的办公室。在那里，卡尔和黛拉将他们自己的故事打印成稿，上面注明柯林斯被捕了。

distraught［dis'trɔ:t］adj. 发狂的；心烦意乱的
mercenary［'mə:sinəri］n. 雇佣兵；唯利是图者
inconsistent［ˌinkən'sistənt］adj. 不一致的；前后矛盾的
surveillance［sə:'veiləns］n. 监督；监视
domestically［də'mestikəli］adv. 国内地；家庭式地；适合国内地
monopoly［mə'nɔpəli］n. 垄断；垄断者；专卖权
subsidiary［səb'sidiəri］n. 子公司；辅助者
authorization［ˌɔ:θərai'zei∫ən］n. 授权；认可；批准；委任
重点掌握
■ Cal and Della type up their own story
type up是英语中的一个固定搭配，如果你type up a text that has been written by hand, you produce a typed copy of it. 也就是“把（手写稿）打出来；把……打印成文”的意思，比如：When the first draft was completed, Nichols typed it up. 当初稿完成时，尼科尔斯把它打了出来。

Russell Crowe interviewed by Rob Carnevale
I gather director Kevin Macdonald got on a plane to Australia to persuade you to take the part in State of Play. Did you need much persuading?
I didn't need persuading but I certainly wanted to meet him. I don't base my decisions on a very complex set of rules. So, let's go back to how the request came to me, because I have a very strong working history with Universal ［the distributor］. The complete list of films we've done together are Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man and American Gangster. So, when the request came in to consider this, it wasn't just coming from people I'd worked with before, it was coming from people I had a long-term friendship with. The studio were in a bit of bother. They'd spent a considerable sum of money. But there were also people I knew in the crew. So, I got the odd call from friends of long-standing saying: “Listen man, the difference between you doing this or not doing this is whether or not I should buy Christmas presents for my kids.” But you should be able to write that sort of email if you're a good friend.
Did the role give you a newfound appreciation for journalism and how tricky the job can be?
Not at all. I think that if there are problems in journalism they're created by journalists... the trivialisation of the news and the sort of snyed, cynical allowance of untruth to be in a newspaper because it might be titillating. I think if there's some kind of crisis in news journalism at the moment... a crisis of credibility, then it's been created by journalists. I'm empathetic, I understand it and I see it, but I'm not sympathetic about it. If you want people to think of journalism with higher regard then do better work. 我听说导演凯文·麦克唐纳坐飞机去了澳洲，为的是说服你参演《国家要案》。你需要大量的说服吗？
我不需要说服，但我当然想见他。我做决定并不基于一套非常复杂的规则。所以，让我们回到这个话题，这个邀请是如何降临到我身上的，因为我和环球［发行商］有着非常牢固的合作历史。我们一起合作完成的影片有《角斗士》、《美丽心灵》、《铁拳男人》和《美国黑帮》。所以，当这个邀请来临，在考虑这个的时候，那不只是来自我之前合作过的人们，它是来自和我有长期深厚友谊的人们。工作室会有点烦，他们花了一大笔钱。但组里也有我认识的人。所以，我接到了老朋友奇怪的电话，说：“听着，你拍或不拍的区别就是我是否该给我的孩子买圣诞礼物。”但如果是好朋友，你是应该写那种电子邮件的。
这个角色有没有让你对新闻工作产生一种新的赞赏，这项工作怎样棘手？
完全没有。我觉得如果新闻工作有问题，那是记者造成的……新闻导向和某种歪曲，愤世嫉俗的失真报纸的出现是因为这可能会刺激人们。我想如果届时新闻工作出现某种危机……信任危机，那是记者造成的。我感情丰富，我理解这些，我看到这些，但我不同情这些。如果你想让人们把新闻工作看得更高，那么就要把新闻工作做得更好。

原本布拉德·皮特和爱德华·诺顿计划签约该片，这样就成为两人自《搏击俱乐部》（1999年）之后的再度携手合作。然而由于编剧们的大罢工，剧本无法改写，于是皮特于2007年感恩节前夕退出了这一拍摄计划，取而代之的正是罗素·克劳。此外，由于爱德华·诺顿答应出演《草叶》（2009年），因而也辞演该片，取而代之的就是本·阿弗莱克。
由于布拉德·皮特的离去，在敲定罗素·克劳出演之前，考虑过卡尔·麦克阿弗里这一角色的候选者有：约翰尼·德普、尼古拉斯·凯奇和汤姆·汉克斯。
本片改编自BBC拍摄于2003年的同名电视剧《政局密云》，在电视剧里扮演斯蒂芬·柯林斯的大卫·莫瑞瑟与扮演卡尔·麦克阿弗里的约翰·西姆，也曾经计划在电影版本中客串一把。