Wag the Dog
Taking the basic idea of the United States Government covering up a scandal by starting a fake war, but changing the events and the scandal from Larry Beinhart's novel, screenwriter David Mamet's 1997 darkly humorous satire casts Robert De Niro as governmental fixer Conrad Brean hired to steer media coverage from reports away from the President sexually assaulting a young girl in the Oval Office long enough for him to win re-election.
To help him craft a fake war, Brean hires a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) and his team (Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Suzie Plakson, and Andrea Martin) while also relying on a small group of the President's staff (most notably Anne Heche, Suzanne Cryer, Jenna Byrne, and John Michael Higgins) who alone know the truth about the outrageous lie being sold to the American public that not even the CIA nor the President's political opponent (Craig T. Nelson) can cut their way through to expose the truth.
Mamet, who completely rewrote Hilary Henkin's script that more closely resembled the novel, hits all the right notes here while satirizing both politics and Hollywood and the even the American voters willing to accept whatever is delivered to them on the 6 o'clock news. Perhaps the only thing that would be different if the film were made today is the news channels knowingly taking part in the deception to cover their corporate interests.
There are several great moments throughout including Hoffman's character repeatedly explaining that whatever new challenge their fake war has run into it's nothing compared to his previous experiences. We also get the fun creation of the songs of war (which are pretty darn catchy), the give-and-take when putting together video footage of a young Albanian (Kirsten Dunst) on the run, and Heche's amazing reaction to learning the true life story of their fake war hero.
The new Blu-ray doesn't offer much in the way of new features, simply bringing back the audio commentary and featurettes from previous DVD releases, but for fans of Mamet who don't already own the film on home video it's worth picking up.
- Title: Wag the Dog
- IMDb: link
