Wag the Dog

Wag the Dog is a 1997 American political satire black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricates a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. The screenplay by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet was loosely adapted from Larry Beinhart's 1993 novel, American Hero.
Wag the Dog was released one month before the news broke of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal and the bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the Clinton administration in August 1998, which prompted the media to draw comparisons between the film and reality. The comparison was also made in December 1998, when the administration initiated a bombing campaign of Iraq during Clinton's impeachment trial for the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. It was made again in spring 1999, when the administration intervened in the Kosovo War and initiated a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which, coincidentally, bordered Albania and contained ethnic Albanians. The film grossed $64.3 million on a $15 million budget, and was well received by critics, who praised the direction, performances, themes and humor. Hoffman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and screenwriters David Mamet and Hilary Henkin were both nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
==Plot==
The president is caught making advances on an underage girl inside the Oval Office less than two weeks before the election. Conrad Brean, a top spin doctor, is brought in by presidential aide Winifred Ames to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a fictional war in Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead. Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footage of a fleeing orphan to arouse sympathy. The hoax is initially successful, with the president quickly gaining ground in the polls.
When the CIA learns of the plot, they send Agent Young to confront Brean about the hoax. Brean convinces Young that revealing the deception is against his and the CIA's best interests. But when the CIA — in collusion with the president's rival candidate — reports that the war has ended, the media begins to focus back on the president's sexual abuse scandal. To counter this, Motss invents a hero who was left behind enemy lines in Albania.
Inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe", Brean and Motss ask the Pentagon to provide a special forces soldier with a matching name (a sergeant named "Schumann" is identified), around whom a POW narrative can be constructed. As part of the hoax, folk singer Johnny Dean records a song called "Old Shoe", which is pressed onto a 78 rpm record, prematurely aged so that listeners will think it was recorded years earlier, and sent to the Library of Congress to be "found". Soon, large numbers of old pairs of shoes begin appearing on phone and power lines, and a grassroots movement takes hold.
When the team goes to retrieve Schumann, they discover he is in fact a criminally insane Army convict. On the way back, their plane crashes en route to Andrews Air Force Base. The team survives and is rescued by a farmer, an illegal alien who is given expedited citizenship for a better story. However, Schumann is killed when he attempts to rape a gas station owner's daughter. Seizing the opportunity, Motss stages an elaborate military funeral for Schumann, claiming he died from wounds sustained during his rescue.
While watching a political talk show, Motss gets frustrated that the media are crediting the president's upsurge in the polls to the bland campaign slogan of "Don't change horses in mid-stream" rather than to Motss's hard work. Motss states he wants credit and will reveal his involvement, despite Brean's offer of an ambassadorship and the dire warning that he is "playing with his life". After Motss refuses to change his mind, Brean reluctantly orders his security staff to kill him. A newscast reports that Motss has died of a heart attack at home, the president has been successfully re-elected, and an Albanian terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for a recent bombing, suggesting the fake war is becoming a real one.
==Cast==
* Robert De Niro as Conrad Brean 
* Dustin Hoffman as Stanley Motss
* Anne Heche as Winifred Ames
* Denis Leary as 'Fad King'
* Willie Nelson as Johnny Dean
* Andrea Martin as Liz Butsky
* Kirsten Dunst as Tracy Lime
* William H. Macy as CIA Agent Charles Young
* Craig T. Nelson as Senator Neal
* George Gaynes as Senator Cole
* John Michael Higgins as John Levy
* Sean Masterson as Bob Richardson
* Suzie Plakson as Grace
* Woody Harrelson as Sergeant William Schumann
* Suzanne Cryer as Amy Cain
* James Belushi as himself
* Shirley Prestia as herself
* Roebuck "Pops" Staples as himself
* Merle Haggard as himself
==References==
==External links==
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Category:1997 films
Category:1990s films
Category:1997 black comedy films
Category:1997 comedy films
Category:1990s political films
Category:1990s political satire films
Category:American black comedy films
Category:American political satire films
Category:1990s English-language films
Category:Films about television
Category:Films about elections
Category:Films about fictional presidents of the United States
Category:Films about journalists
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films directed by Barry Levinson
Category:Films produced by Robert De Niro
Category:Films set in Washington, D.C.
Category:Films set in the White House
Category:Films shot in Washington, D.C.
Category:Films with screenplays by David Mamet
Category:Films scored by Mark Knopfler
Category:New Line Cinema films
Category:Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winners
Category:Films about media manipulation
Category:Films about conspiracy theories
Category:1990s American films