Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson.
**Black comedy or dark comedy is a comic style that makes light of subjects that are generally considered serious or taboo. Black comedy corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor. (wiki)
Wag The Dog is a political drama which has successfully analyzed and criticized the way how media can divert public attention.
The story begins with a sexual misconduct of the president, who is up for reelection in eleven days. White House brings in Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro), who is a notorious political “spin doctor”, to cover up this scandal by making up a story. Anne Heche playing the role of a white house staff (Winifred Ames) asks for Brean’s help just a day before the story is to be published in the major news media. Brean’s solution is to create an artificial war to divert public attention.
So Ames and Brean fly to Hollywood and make a deal with a famous film producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) to make up a war with the selected country: Albania. The reason why Albania is a good choice is that nobody knows about the country and Albania doesn’t involve in such international affairs. Then, at Motts' Hollywood home, Motts assembles a team of loyal specialists whom include creative consultant Liz Butsky (Andrea Martin), country-western singer Johnny Dean (Willie Nelson), and entrepreneur Fad King (Dennis Leary) to help out fabricate the means for the "war with Albania”.
“War is show business.” says Stanley Motts, and in the light of this quote they create the elaborate misinformation and false news items to divert the public attention away the president’s sexual misconduct.
Firstly, Motts and Brean hires a young blonde actress named Tracy Lime (Kirsten Dunst) to play the role of a hopeless Albanian girl holding a white kitten in her hands. The usage of a white kitten in this scene is to symbolise the vulnerability and innocence of this little girl, which makes the story more dramatic. But, instead, a bag of chips is used in front of a green screen. Then the image is easily changed by some specialists.
Secondly, the press announces the Albanian terrorists placing nuclear device (suitcase bomb) near the US border in Canada. Therefore, there is an imminent threat of the device being smuggled into the US.
The next day, while Brean and Ames are on the road, they are pulled over by some CIA agents led by Charles Young (William H. Macy). Young claims their delinquency by creating an artificial war with Albania and starts to question them. Brean convinces him their innocence affirming CIA doesn’t know anything behind the scenes. Young releases them but the day after they see on the news the declaration of the ended war. Everyone is upset, but Motts downplays the setback by declaring "this is nothing", and proposes an "Act Two" to invent a hero about a fellow American sergeant left behind in Albania, inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe”.
Function of a producer:
“It’s all thinking ahead. That’s what producing is. It’s like being a plumber.”
says Motts.
Thus, the hero and the slogan of the war are decided. A Sergeant named William Schumann (Woody Harrelson) will be the representative of the fictional Albanian War. Fad King composes the song “Good Ol’ Shoe” which will be the great proof of patriotism in the public propagandas. Then, a photo of Schumann wearing a torn t-shirt which has a morse code on it: saying “courage mom” makes a big influence on the public. It’s nothing more than playing on people’s emotions.
Meanwhile, the propagandas de qualité inférieure of the president go along. The replique “Do not change horses in the mid-stream” annoys Motts who finds it very corny.
Finally Motts and Brean meet Sergeant William Schumann who is indeed a raper put in the prison. Schumann is expected by the president and many American people arranging for him a welcoming. But things don’t go well and the plane crashes. The team survives and is rescued by a farmer, but Schumann attempts to rape the farmer's daughter and the farmer kills him. Our team
remains cold-blooded and decides to arrange a fake funeral of Schumann which will be more effective than they thought. There’s also a small detail to heroise him is to train a dog to follow the coffin of Schumann which is also a great idea.
Through the end of the film we can easily see a criticism for the negligence of the producers. Motts says that: “There’s no academy award for producing.” Motts gets frustrated by the fact that his work was not appreciated, decides to reveal himself. Brean's warns him that he is "playing with his life". But Motss refuses to back down, so Brean reluctantly has him killed and makes it look as if he had a heart attack.
In an ironic tragicomedy ending, movie ends with a news report about a violent incident in Albania, but it is unclear whether this is a true event and that a very real war between the US and Albania has started, or simply a continuation of the fictional war.
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