"Wag the Dog" (1997)
A Film Review by Jason Wallis
"Wag the Dog" * * * * Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, William H. Macy, Willie Nelson, Kirsten Dunst, Craig T. Nelson, Woody Harrelson and James Belushi Directed by Barry Levinson
"Why does a dog wag it's tail? Because a dog is smarter than it's tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog."
There is a quality that Barry Levinson's new film "Wag the Dog" possesses that I have not seen pulled off since Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove": brilliant political satire. In all the years that have come and gone since Kubrick's apocalyptic vision of nuclear war, not one single film has managed to create satire that deserves comparison.
I'm sure that by now everyone knows the all-to-familiar (*cough, cough*) premise of the film: the White House calls in a spin doctor (Robert DeNiro, in his best performance in years) to play Mr. Fixit when the President becomes embroiled in a sex scandal involving a much younger woman (again, *cough, cough*). In turn, DeNiro employs the help of a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to aid him in creating a fake war (oh, excuse me, pageant) with Albania in order to divert attention from the big cheese's scandal.
Meanwhile, the President's opponent (a wasted Craig T. Nelson) is planning to air commercials about the scandal set to the tune "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". Not good. So they need to get this thing moving fast and they do so by hiring an array of quirky characters to help move the "war" along by means of theme songs, catch phrases and fake heroes.
To say any more would almost be a crime against humanity, so I will leave it at that. But what ensues is one of the freshest, funniest and just plain cool flicks to come out of the last decade. The cast puts so much effort and charm into their roles that, just because of them, it's hard not to like the movie. I mean, there's just something so cool about hearing Hoffman quip "That's not a problem." that it just can't be explained. It has to be seen.
Just from hearing the plot of the movie, I was curious to see how Levinson would pull of such an absurd and outrageous plot. Well, he does so. Brilliantly, I might add. But "Wag the Dog" is far more than a great political comedy, but it is also a perfectly executed send up of today's Hollywood that should not (and I hope will not) be forgotten soon.
However, as fresh and funny as "Wag the Dog" is, it is also extremely creepy, especially due to the recent spiel involving our president, Mr. Clinton. It's not all that improbable that this kind of thing could happen. I'm not saying we're suddenly going to go head-to- head with Iraq or anything, I'm just stating that it's not all that outragious that someone could actually do this. Kind of sends a chill up your spine, actually.
There was a sad shortage of truly great films last year. There are only about three films that I would consider truly brilliant (this is one of them, by the way). Now, I haven't seen most of the "elite" films to come out of 1997 (i.e. "The Ice Storm", "Boogie Nights", "The Sweet Hereafter", etc.), but I find it rather hard to believe that very many movies could be better than this is.
Of course, you know that this isn't going to get the recognition it deserves come Oscar time. It's too smart and clever for it's own good. Everyone knows that Hollywood never awards fresh filmmaking. They like to give the honors to "epic" movies like "The English Patient" and "Braveheart". I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with those movies; I thought they were actually pretty good. But Best Picture? No way. That award should go an original, semi-offbeat film that actually makes us think about the world we live in. "Wag the Dog" does just that like no movie I've seen in a long, long time.
Check out Jason Wallis' Filmaholics Anonymous web page at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7475
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