Wag the Dog

original title:
Wag the Dog
other titles:
(Wag the Dog - Wenn der Schwanz mit dem Hund wedelt)
country / year of production:
original length:
97 min. , color
premiere:
25 December 1997
genre:
based on:
Larry Beinhart. American Hero. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.
director:
film script:
cinematographer:
editor:
composer:
more:
plot synopsis:
Two weeks prior to re-election, the President is accused of cornering a Girl Scout in the Oval Office. To keep the media from learning of this, Presidential adviser Winifred Ames brings in political consultant and spin doctor Conrad Brean, a specialist in such salvage operations. Brean suggests fabricating denials of non-existent emergencies — such as denials about the B-3 bomber. The denial, of course, is true, since no B-3 bomber exists. Brean visits the mansion of Hollywood producer Stanley Motss and gives him the assignment to create a patriotic campaign centered around a war in Albania. Motss assembles a creative team — Liz Butsky , the trend-setter Fad King, and songwriter Johnny Green. Treated like an ad campaign, the songs and symbols are transmitted directly from a Hollywood soundstage to CNN. The star of their campaign is a "rescued" pilot — in reality, a psychotic military prisoner, a psychotic freak. Nonetheles Brean`s mission is successful: the attention of the media is drawn toward a war in an unknown country, and the president is re-elected.
literature:
remarks:
In a 29-day shoot, Barry Levinson filmed this $15 million political and media satire.
The flag-waving song, "The American Dream" was written for the film by Tom Bahler (who co-wrote "We Are the World"). Beinhart's original novel involved a real President (Bush Sr.), a real war (the first Gulf War), and the premise that George Bush and Sadaam Hussein staged it. Wag the Dog came out not long before the nation found out about its own President's sexual misconduct; the prophetic script gets its laughs not from outlandish fantasy, but from the realization that it's only marginally removed from plausibility. The fake war the movie cooks up, for example, is set in the real nation of Albania, and the viewer is challenged to accept the characters' convictions that the American public doesn't know or even care where Albania is.

Homepage: http://www.newline.com/sites/wagthedog/
availability:
VHS, DVD