Wag the Dog (1997)

Directed by

Barry Levinson

Genre

comedy drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 37m

Rated

R

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 1,066 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A spin doctor and a Hollywood producer team up to invent a fake war to cover up a president's scandal. They use media tricks and staged events to sell the lie to the public.

sharpcynicalfast-pacedsatiricaldarkly comicmanipulativewrytense

What happens

Wag the Dog is a 1997 American political satire black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. Produced and directed by Barry Levinson, the film centers on spin doctor Conrad Bean and Hollywood producer Stanley Motss who fabricate a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. The screenplay by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet is 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 eight months before 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 these events. Comparison was also made in December 1998, when the administration initiated a bombing campaign of Iraq during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial for the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal, and again in spring 1999, when the administration intervened in the Kosovo War by initiating a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which, coincidentally, borders Albania and has an ethnic Albanian population. Wag the Dog premiered at Century City on December 17, 1997 before being released by New Line Cinema on December 25, 1997. 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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