director
Barry Levinson
screenwriters
Hilary
Henkin
David Mamet
based
on the novel American Hero by
Larry
Beinhart
producers
Robert De Niro
Barry Levinson
Jane Rosenthal
cinematographer
Robert Richardson
music
Mark Knopfler
editor
Stu Linder
cast
Dustin Hoffman (Stanley Motss)
Robert De Niro (Conrad Brean)
Anne Heche (Winifred Ames)
Denis Leary (Fad King)
Willie Nelson (Johnny Dean)
Andrea Martin (Liz Butsky)
Kirsten Dunst (Tracy Lime)
William H. Macy (CIA Agent Mr. Young)
Suzie Plakson (Grace)
Woody Harrelson (Sgt. Schumann)
Michael Belson (President)
Harland Williams (Pet Wrangler)
Craig T. Nelson (Senator John Neal)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 97m
u.s.
release: December 25,
1997
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
Official
website
other barry
levinson films
reviewed on this website:
- sleepers
- sphere
|
Wag
the Dog has the loose,
improvisational rhythm of a group of great musicians jamming
at a club, performing at their peaks and surprising each other
and themselves. This low-budget studio release does what Heat
and Sleepers
failed to do: it collects a cast of legends and up-and-comers
and lets them have fun working together. The fun is contagious;
Wag the Dog feels tossed-off and casual in the best way
-- not too heavy, not too much riding on it. To over-analyze
its satire -- or to overrate it -- is to suck most of the life
out of it.
As a satire, it's probably the 417th black comedy to break the
news that the media is evil and we are being lied to.
Wow, stop the presses. What distinguishes Wag the Dog
is its systematic approach to media deception. The movie invites
us behind closed doors, where we rub elbows with Washington spin
doctors and Hollywood illusionists, and they show us how everything
works (or, theoretically, could work). Taking this tour,
we're not so much disturbed as oddly flattered, the way we are
when Richard III turns and confides in us (and only us) in his
asides.
The script, by Hilary Henkin (Romeo Is Bleeding) and legendary
playwright David Mamet, shares its basic premise with Michael
Moore's less successful satire Canadian Bacon, where the
President declared war on Canada to boost his flagging polls
in the wake of weapons-factory shutdowns. Wag the Dog
concerns itself much more with the process, the mechanics
of manipulation on a grand scale. Here, we go to "war"
with Albania (why? why not?) to distract the American public
from the President's recent misadventure with a Firefly Girl
days before re-election.
The joke is that there never is a war, only a media mirage (and
barrage) that cranks up public hatred of Albania and support
for America's defense of freedom. Presidential advisor Winifred
Ames (Anne Heche) calls in the big gun: spin master Conrad Brean
(Robert De Niro), who lays the groundwork for the "war"
(deny everything; people expect the government to issue denials)
and then calls in his own big gun. Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman),
a fantastically successful movie producer who feels unappreciated
by Hollywood, jumps at the chance to help Conrad set the stage
for the war: "a little song, a little dance, a pageant."
Nobody who watched the protracted CNN video game called the Gulf
War will find Wag the Dog all that far-fetched. As director
Barry Levinson has pointed out, the Gulf War may not have been
faked, but it could easily have been. Levinson, whose directorial
hand was so heavy and lugubrious in Sleepers, snaps awake
here and puts up a piece of jittery, hand-held, on-the-fly filmmaking.
He seems relieved to be working so fast, cheap, and in control,
as do all of his actors. Hoffman in particular makes Stanley
not just a crass producer but a hopped-up ersatz sorcerer getting
high on the snap, crackle and pop of his own "creativity."
His satirical performance is sharper for being genuinely affectionate;
he loves this tanned weasel, and so do we.
Part of the fun of Wag the Dog is its respect for professionalism:
These people may be scoundrels, but they know what they're doing,
they love what they do, and they're great at it. That extends
to everyone involved in the movie, from the cast to the cinematographer
(Robert Richardson, taking a breather from Oliver Stone movies)
and the composer (Mark Knopfler, whose deadpan riffs perfectly
suit the action). Is this a great movie? Not quite; it lacks
the pitiless circular snake-eating-its-tail shape of classic
satire -- the ending is dark but could have been a lot darker.
"They're nice guys, they just haven't thought it out,"
says Conrad of the CIA who meddle in the fake war, and that could
describe the screenwriters during the last act. Still, you don't
expect shape and structure from a jam session; you're there to
hear great artists making music. Wag the Dog hits one
true note after another. |
