WAG THE DOG (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Barry Levinson Writers: David Mamet and Hilary Menken (based on the novel "American Hero" by Larry Beinhert) Starring: Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, Craig T. Nelson, Woody Harrelson, David Koechner, Harland Williams, James Belushi, Jay Leno
Before I saw this film, I thought that films like this weren't even made anymore. You know: the comedy that causes you to laugh the whole time, but contains another level to it that might even creep you out to think about. While we're laughing hysterically at it, we can't help have a couple moments pause to think about how truthful this whole film is. I mean, thanks to Oliver Stone, we all know that the government lies to us - but this film expounds on that idea to say that not only does the government lie to us, but the media, whom we usually trust, helps them out.
In this film, the President (of the United States) has eleven days until election day, and it has just been discovered that he did some hanky panky with a "Firefly Girl," opening up a huge scandal that could obviously destroy him (in fact, the other Presidential candidate, played by Craig T. Nelson, starts airing campaign commercials featuring that Maurie Chevalier classic, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls"). So the White House staff calls for Conrad Breen (Robert DeNiro) to help them out.
Conrad is the best spin doctor in the business, and is capable of coming up with wacky yet plausible lies to cover up almost any scandal. But, teamed with presidential aide Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), he goes to Hollywood for help, as this one's a little hard to do. He journeys to the mansion of Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman, tanned to the brim) to help him produce a war, which is to be against Albania because those darn Albanians are apparently harboring a nuclear weapon in Canada that is about to make its way to the states...or so Conrad says.
With Stanley, the three begin to stage a war, since war is not really about killing, but about marketing. Civilian americans are never on the battlefront, and rely on the media to alert them about it, so why not use the medium against them, and to not only distract the new scandal from the president, but also make him out to be a hero. For a war, you need a small motive, some news coverage, a song(s), catch phrases, and a hero left behind. And not only do these liars need to convince the American people, but also the other branches of government.
The story, however, does sound a bit gimmicky. It could be just a bunch of lies about one thing, and the story goes absolutely nowhere. But the story is always moving, with lots of wacky problems thrown the way of our "heroes." The story is smart, and that's why we have an encounter with some CIA men (led by William H. Macy), a huge twist in mid-story which would defeat most spin doctors, and even a hilarious problem towards the end, which actually ends up helping them out more.
The script is hysterical, no shock since it's co-written by David Mamet (a god among playwrights). He has always been a connosieur of writing great dialogue, and here is no exception. In fact, he writes more great one-liners and zingers than you can shake a stick at. Every line is intelligently written, and sounds exactly like something the respective character would say...something that is often taken advantage of in modern films. I hope he and Hilary Menken, the other co-writer get nominated.
And the acting is brilliant. DeNiro, who can play virtually any role, is amazing as the schming Conrad who is payed to lie through other people's teeth. He has so much energy in his performance, and he's brilliant with others (this might actually be his best performance in the, like, thousand films he's in that are being released around now). Hoffman pretty much steals the film though, and might get an Oscar nomination out of this. He also has a ton of energy, albeit of a different kind, and when he goes off on rants of creativity, coming up with slogans and various ideas, it's true magic (his catch phrase: "This isn't a problem," which is used for any size of problem that befalls our protagonists). And Heche holds her own between the two deities, showing she's a great actress, and has a knack for comedy (her scene with DeNiro and Macy is hilarious).
In the supporting cast, Denis Leary is predicatbly hysterical as the Fad King, a great liar/friend of Hoffman's, who shows up to come up with lies for the story. He and Hoffman have great chemistry in several scenes. Willie Nelson shows up as - you guessed it - a drunken hick song writer, and is hilarious. Child actor Kirsten Dunst ("Interview with the Vampire") has a small role as an actress playing in the one news clip they make of war in Albania, and is pretty funny, as is Macy, who plays more of an intelligent man than the trailers hinted at (his line "When the fit hits the sham, somebody's gonna have to stay after school" hints at another wacko role from him). And Woody Harrelson is just ingenius as the "war hero" Sgt. William Schuman, who turns out to be a little...off kilter. And look for a cameo from Harland "Rocketman" Williams.
Director Barry Levinson, who's not had a good film since "Bugsy," which was years ago, causes things to move slowly at first, but to pick up eventually into mad camp, all while remaining plausible. Although there are times when I would have preferred more wackiness (his use of acoustic music at times is kind of distracting), but he has a knack for comic direction, and even makes things seem a little bit documentary-like with quick close-ups and what-not, giving this a feel that it's what's really happening, not some war. I was very scared that the director of such "gems" like "Toys" and "Sleepers" (the former which was pointless; the latter which bored me to tears), but then again, this is the same director of such real gems as "Diner" and "Rainman." Now I respect him again.
But the real greatness of "Wag the Dog" is the overall feel. I laughed the whole way through the film, and in between the laughs, I thought that if looked at another way, this could be serious as hell. We laugh at the absurdity of everything (not to mention some truly funny lines that are funny no matter what), but the thing is this film is probably not absurd in the slightest. I have no doubt that the character of Conrad Breens is based on a real spin doctor. I'm completely sure that somewhere in Hollywood is a Stanley Motss. This film hits so close to home that it kind of scared me, making me realize that a lot of what I've heard about politics may be as fabricated as the lies these characters make up.
After all, we only hear things through the news. And the news only hears things from other mediums. Are the people who are controlling what we see people we've never even heard of? These are people who make lies up but can never take credit for it or they will endanger the morale of our country. We never find out if everything this film says is true (even a final joke may or may not be fabricated), and that's the point.
Although there are some slight flaws in the film, "Wag the Dog" is one of the funniest and most satirical films I've seen in decades. Though it does not have the extreme bite of Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" or the lenghty discussion-making of Ashby's "Being There," it is still a film that will go down in history as one of the most intelligent and brilliant satires of all time. Though that may not seem so now, it's still one of the best of the year, as well as one of the funniest.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews