Head Of State

          In the movie Head of State, the main character, Mays Gillian, is selected to run for president after the former candidate was killed in a plane crash. In the beginning of Mays campaign, he told what to say, how to act, how to dress, and was given cue cards so he would always act in a manner that his campaign committee would approve of.
By the end of the movie, Mays becomes an actual competition to his opponent Brian Lewis after he starts running his campaign the way he wants to. Mays starts dressing in sweatpants and sweatshirts and sports clothes instead of suits, addresses the nation informally during press conferences, and most importantly, starts speaking from his heart on issues that mattered to him.
Because Mays is a candidate that was not the typical harvard graduate and senator or statesman, he directly relates to the lower and middle classes of society and directly relates to all of their problems and concerns. He has been through all of the same troubles and hardships that many of the people he addresses has been through, and because of that, the people love him and want him to win the campaign.

This movie satirizes political parties and how to nation responds to them. A scene in the movie that underscores that greatly is when it is announced that the former presidential candidate died in a plane crash and many of the listeners did not flinch or even react to what they just heard. This shows how people do not pay as much attention as they should to politics or that they don't care about what happens within the government.
Another example is when Mays travels from city to city reading off of a cue card about the structures he wants to implement in order to help the towns. He changes he idea for every town he visits so that that specific place will benefit from what he would be doing. He says what he knows the people want to hear in order to get more votes. Throughout this movie there are many ways in which political parties are satirized and there are many ways that Mays Gillian's campaign changes.