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Jan 9, 1998 · Wag the Dog: Directed by Barry Levinson. With Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson. Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
- (89K)
- Comedy, Drama
- Barry Levinson
- 1998-01-09
Wag the dog is, as a political term, the act of creating a diversion from a damaging issue usually through military force. It stems from the generic use of the term to mean a small and seemingly unimportant entity (the tail) controls a bigger, more important one (the dog).
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.
- (33.2K)
- Barry Levinson
Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footage of a photogenic orphan. The hoax is initially successful, with the President quickly gaining ground in the polls appearing afterwards.
QUICK TAKE: Comedy: A political spin doctor tries to save the President's reelection chances by inventing a fictitious war that will divert the nation's attention away from a sex scandal. PLOT: Two weeks before his reelection bid, the President (MICHAEL BELSON) is in trouble.
Barry Levinson's under-rated "Wag the Dog" is a brilliant piece of satire which is to the 1990s what "All the President's Men" was to the 1970s. The president is in trouble after a sexual scandal with an under-aged girl.
Mar 31, 2022 · Some movies transcend the particular cultural moment that created them, like Barry Levinson’s bracingly tart 1997 political satire Wag the Dog. The film was a pronounced critical and commercial success at the time of its release, when its satirical tale of a desperate President who fakes an international crisis to distract ...
