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Wag the Dog Movie Review

Wag the Dog is a 1997 satirical comedy film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro in the main roles. It’s a prescient, but not that funny movie.

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“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow“

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The president of the US is caught in a sex scandal a few days before the elections. To avoid media outburst and public outrage, Conrad Bean, his aide, constructs a fake war against Albania. This movie actually predicted not only the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, but also the eventual bombing of Yugoslavia. This makes the story very sophisticated, but hardly funny.

As a viewer from the Balkans, this film angered me more than it amused me as it honestly depicts just how shamelessly manipulative American politics is that they would go as far as to hire a film producer to stage a fake video that they would then use to start a war with a previously insignificant country only to divert from the actual scandals of their current administration. It’s disgusting that they have been doing this for decades, and it’s important that we have this film that truthfully depicts these practices.

Hollywood would never make a movie like this one today, and that is the biggest tragedy in today’s media landscape that has become anything but unbiased. The movie’s script is very clever and layered and it’s the type of movie that would easily be nominated for Best Picture were it released today.

My issue is that it simply isn’t funny and not just because this subject matter angers me so much. The problem is that the humor comes sporadically and most of the time the movie comes across as a political drama masquerading as a satirical comedy. The Woody Harrelson character is very amusing, but that’s pretty much the only humor that we get to see here.

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Others ended up in very serious roles. Dustin Hoffman was nominated for an Oscar for playing this annoying, overly arrogant film producer and he was excellent for sure in what is the film’s most memorable character. Robert De Niro fares much worse. It’s difficult to buy him in this role and he is very unlikable. Anne Heche is solid in a lesser role. Wag the Dog is not particularly cinematic. It is well edited, but in terms of audio-visuals, it’s totally uninspired.

Wag the Dog is a satirical comedy that comes across more as a political drama due to its sporadically used humor and an overly serious nature to its storyline. It’s a technically uninspired, but very well acted and prescient movie that actually predicted not only the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, but also the eventual bombing of Yugoslavia. The movie is more horrifying than funny as witnessing all the fabrications and media manipulation that goes on in American politics is very disturbing. It just goes to show how US media has stooped so low in recent memory when you realize that they would never make a movie like this one today.

My Rating – 3.5