WAG THE DOG
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: What might have worked nicely in a
20-minute film does not keep satire going for 97
minutes. To protect a President from an accusation
of child molestation, a spin doctor decides to
create a fictional war with Albania to act as
distraction for the American people. It is fun for
a little while seeing the political image
specialist and the Hollywood producer brainstorm
epic images inspired by those of previous wars and
then see them actually implemented with 90s
technology. But the film becomes repetitious with
insufficient plot and occasional gaps in
credibility. Both Robert DeNiro's and Dustin
Hoffman's parts are under-written with more of an
eye toward satire than to character. Hoffman does
a better job of rising above the limitation.
Rating: low +1 (0 to 10), 5 (-4 to +4) There are
spoilers in this review, but none that were not in
the trailer that ran in movie theaters.
New York critics: 13 positive, 1 negative, 2 mixed
Somewhere lost in WAG THE DOG's 97 minutes is a bright, funny, pointed, and even frightening 20- minute film. The film makes some good points about the state of political images, about technology, and about the American public. But the film says it all concisely fairly quickly, then says it again, then for good measure says it again. Eventually the movie which from the outside would seem short out-stays its welcome. It is surprising that Barry Levinson thought that he could get by with one-dimensional characters in so repetitious a story however engaging and important the central idea was. Levinson knows the value of good characters. He built his reputation with DINER and he directed AVALON. Both are films with very real, very believable characters. This instead is an idea film, but it gives us the same idea over and over. The script is by Harry Henkin and David Mamet based on the novel AMERICAN HERO by Larry Beinhart. It tells us that what we remember from the wars of our past are images and ceremonies. For example, from World War II we remember the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and a sailor kissing a girl in New York City when the war is over--the visual images of that war that had power. From Vietnam we remember a young girl running screaming in a street after a napalm attack; then there is the illegal pistol execution in another street. These images could always have been orchestrated and many probably were. And as time has passed the creation of these images has only become easier and less expensive with techniques like digital image processing. The government feeds us images rather than facts, or at least such is the implication of WAG THE DOG.
It is less than two weeks to the national election and the President is in big trouble. It seems he is accused of sexually abusing a Firefly Girl, part of a troop visiting the Capital Building. (I know that our current President is unpopular in some quarters, but even so this seems like a somewhat exaggerated premise.) An image expert, Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro), is called in protect the President from the accusation and after some deliberation he determines that the best strategy is to give the President a military victory in the few days before the election. A war has to appear to start up and the President has to appear to win the war in just the short period of time before the election. Brean determines that the winning approach is to fabricate a war with Albania. To bring off such a war he needs the help of a top Hollywood producer. His choice is the handsome, graying Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman).
From there the film goes into a series of repetitious cycles. First there is the brainstorming session where Brean and Motss talk in understated tone about what sort of an image they need to impress the public. Not surprisingly, this sounds almost like they are planning for the production of a film. They hit on some idea upon which they can agree. The suggestion is actually produced and we see a few of the steps that go into the production to make it seem possible. Finally we see the final implementation as the public would see it and it is some variation on some image that inspired the public in some previous war. A song will sound very much like a song we remember, or some monument to the war heroes will look like some famous monument, aut cetera. Binding these cycles together is a bit of a plot, but not much of one.
The film offers two good actors in the lead roles, Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. But there is little in this film to give much of a clue to who these people really are beyond what their jobs are. However, DeNiro plays his role a bit suppressed and Hoffman takes advantage of this to appear a much more outgoing person amused by the political machinations and his new-found power. The two are accompanied by Anne Heche, who seems to have been added to this film as an after-thought. She has little to do but tag along.
People who are nearer to either the film industry or the political process may find that there is much in this film that is on-target, but for many viewers this film will be an argument that there is still a place for the short film and perhaps it should be used more often. I rate this film a 5 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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