This film has Willie Nelson in it. Willie Nelson, man. How can you go wrong?
In December of this year, the film Wag the Dog will turn five years old. However, I have a feeling the eerie authenticity of its depiction of White House damage control specialists will continue to keep it relevant for another five, ten, perhaps twenty years down the road. It asks, how would the general public ever know what lengths these spin doctors will go to in order to cover up a scandal? For all the things we supposedly "catch" presidents doing, how many other things do they get away with thanks to some skilled finagling? The film's speculation provides a funny and intriguing explanation.
Since the bombing of the Twin Towers last year, I suppose the premise behind Wag the Dog might have lost a bit of its bite. The American president needs no longer invent a war on another country via the media to deflect negative publicity -- as is the case in the film -- because on 9/11 the U.S. was decidedly dragged into one anyway. But it does remind us that, regardless of the reason, wars do create waves of patriotism, and, if the goal of his hired staff is to keep the president in office as long as possible, then this film has predicted the logical development of mastering polls and one way to nab votes.
Anne Heche plays Winifred Ames and Robert De Niro is Conrad Brean. Together, they try to fix a potential public relations nightmare that could erupt at any moment: the president has been caught in a less-than-luminescent position with a Firefly Girl. Brean turns to a Hollywood producer named Stanley Motss for help. Played with dizzying verbosity by Dustin Hoffman, whenever things go from bad to worse (which is actually quite often), he knowingly grins and exclaims, "This is nothing!"
Motss knows what he's talking about. He runs with Brean's decision to leak news of a phony war with Albania, to the extent of staging a phony video clip of a refugee (Kirsten Dunst), set against a bombed village, as she runs for her life with a kitten in her arms (the kitten is, in fact, a bag of Tostitos that is eventually digitally altered accordingly). The producer even brings in a man known as the Fad King (Denis Leary) to devise a new trend to rouse national morale. The pair comes up with the "Good Old Shoe" campaign, which involves throwing your tied-together sneakers over telephone poles and branches of trees in show of support for Sgt. Schumann, a fictitious soldier who was allegedly captured behind enemy Albanian lines. Schumann's real identity provides the film's biggest laughs, as played by Woody Harrelson in a scene-stealing cameo.
Once again, David Mamet is in top form as the co-penman behind the script. The dialogue sparkles with frantic wit and delicious satire. Director Barry Levinson doesn't really go for splash, keeping a deadpan setting so that each of the wild scenarios stay relatively grounded. Wag the Dog is a topsy-turvy ride that touches a nerve. We marvel at its over-the-top audaciousness, but we also wince and grimace at its potential veracity.
