WAG THE DOG 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
1 :-) for pure wanking fun
Cast: Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, Denis Leary, Andrea Martin, Willie Nelson, Suzie Plakson, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy Director: Barry Levinson Screenplay: David Mamet & Hilary Henkin, based on the book by Larry Beinhart
What a silly name for a movie that's all about deception and the use of tele-media to deceive a nation (USA), in the upcoming Presidential Elections. The saying goes - a dog will wag it's tail, but if the tail is smarter than the dog, it will WAG THE DOG. I get it – meaning the president is the rear end and the American people are comparative to a dog's body. But wouldn't a better title be HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU WANK A GREAT NATION?
The entire premise and punch line for the movie rests on the absurdly hilarious, although very possible situations created by the US Presidential Party into making their country believe that they are at war with another nation (Albania of all places). The idea is divert attention away from the President's sexual misconduct with a girl scout, in order to win the upcoming elections in the remaining few days. This is overall fun, especially the recreated scenes of an Albanian refugee (Kirsten Dunst) escaping from terrorist fire, the production of the sentimental, ever reliable war hero trapped behind enemy lines (Woody Harrelson), and Willie Nelson's wonderful song making talents used to recreate heart moving lyrical tunes about ‘Old Shoes'. The idea is refreshing and entertaining, but also a sad miscalculation by Barry Levinson (director), in relying so heavily on this one movie gimmick which eventually runs dry.
The Hollywood producer of the entire scam is Dustin Hoffman, who is not particularly exciting, but gets an Academy nomination for his performance anyway. Robert De Niro or Anne Heche are otherwise plausible as Presidential campaigners who work hard to win the election.
This movie explores some interesting intellectual, conceptual ideas about media brainwashing and how gullible we are as people. Did man truly walk on the moon, did everything about the Gulf War happen as we saw it on TV, or was it all just some contrived propaganda put there by some government funded movie studio? Probably not, but there may come a day when Big Brother will have the power to do so.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~bouclier/week/movies.html
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