Week 5-Grace's Film Review of Wag the Dog

Film review

This film review will analyse the movie Wag the Dog and highlight the important features of it. The movie, Wag the Dog, starts with the president being blamed of sexually harassing a “Firefly girl” at the Oval Office. The presidential election is only 2 weeks away and his opponent campaigns by saying ``Thank Heaven for Little Girls'' in his TV commercial. As a result, to win the election, the White House adviser Winifred Ames(Anne Heche) guides a spin doctor named Conrad Brean for an urgent situation session. Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro), the spin doctor, with the help of a Hollywood movie producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), direct to persuade the public, using media manipulation techniques that America is at war with Albania. The headlines that effect from this manipulation soon take over the President's suspected tryst with a young girl. Thus the tail wags the dog.

The film is stimulating the message about the relationship between politics and mass media. The main theme of the film is how a presentation campaign is affected by manipulating the media and the American people. When the scandal first hits the news, a speculation that America has started to manufacture new bomber planes emerge from the “spin” group, which gives them the time to create the biggest diversion of the actual news. A series of false news is intentionally leaked to the press to divert the press over and over again.

The weakest point of the movie is over exaggeration. However, this is not noticed until the end of the movie as the script has been done perfectly to create a flawless story. Compared to other political satire movies, Wag the Dog blends in the seriousness of a situation and humour to create a very believable chain of events. 

In addition to humour, the areas where Wag the Dog do well is in letting us know that the media is in the business of making money, and they will report whatever sells their product. It shows that a Presidential campaign is not about the events that occur during a Presidential term, but the spin that is put on them.

The highs of the movie are the actors and the story. The performances are amazing all around. Both Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman create some of their best work. The acting by the sustaining cast is also brilliant. 

This movie is very easy to fall into as the political jargon we see in similar type of movies are minimal. The chain of events that lead to the final scene is amazing. After the viewers leave the movie they will be wondering which stories they see on television is the actual facts and which are just spins.