Wag the Dog

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Product Details

Director : Barry Levinson
Actor : Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson
Format : NTSC
Binding : VHS Tape
EAN : 9780780623989
Product Group : Video
Release Date : 2002-06-04
Studio : Alliance (Universal)
UPC : 794043469435

ASIN : 0780623983

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Not only was Barry Levinson's comedy shot in a relatively fast period of 29 days, the satire of politics and show business feels as if it were made yesterday. There's a fresh spin quite evident here, a nervy satire of a presidential crisis and the people who whitewash the facts. The main players are a mysterious Mr. Fix-It (Robert De Niro), veteran Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman), and a White House aide (Anne Heche). Can the president's molesting of a young girl be buried in the two weeks before an election? A war in Albania just might do the trick. In the good old days, the president would just invade. With modern technology, it's even cleaner. The hungry press looks for any lead, convenient misinformation is created by the latest Hollywood fakery ("all developed by the new James Cameron film") creating images and merchandise all instantly packaged. And it must be real, because it's on TV. David Mamet's script never questions the morals or the absolute secrecy needed to pull this thing off. He and director Barry Levinson have enough truth in the story to make you wonder what is real news and what is just promotion the next time you see CNN. Many of the supporting players impact the story with mere presence: Denis Leary as a quote man, Willie Nelson as a songwriter. The three leads are magnificent. With the similarities between history and this film, Wag will forever linked to the Monica Lewinsky saga. This video version contains a new minidocumentary focusing on the parallels of the film with the Bill Clinton scandal, including comments from director Barry Levinson and hosted by newsman Tom Brokaw. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Wag the Dog (2005-04-30)

I loved it. If you like black comedy this is the film for you. I rate it all the way up there with Dr. Strangelove and The Hospital.

This movie was funnier BEFORE we started engineering wars... (2004-07-16)

Oh dear.

Originaly a parody of the Lewinsky "situation," this movie has grown even more timely since its release. We are currently embroiled in a fake war that this movie definately saw coming: from manufactured heros that don't quite work out (whatever happened to Jessica Lynch anyways?) to theme songs ("Let the Eagle Soar," anyone?) to photo-op battles (the pulling down of Saddam's statue, with the American tanks off-camera so that it looked like it was being done by a mob of Iraqis).

This is a very funny parody that is sometimes subtle, sometimes abrasive, but always hits its target dead on: whether it is the greasy advisors, the complacent news media, or the easily duped American public. Everyone should give it a watch before the next presidential election.

Wag the Dog (2004-07-15)

This movie has got to be the worst script ever written. If it even had a script. It must have been conceived during a dream of a left-winger. It is a conspiracy fantasy of how the White House must be for those who have no idea of how to cope with real world.

In the end, the movie has two great actors, Dustin Hoffman and Roberth DeNiro wasting their breath.

CLINTON PARODY (2004-06-08)

"Wag the Dog" was straight out of the Clinton files. The President (partially shown, but apparently not resembling Clinton physically or politically) defiles a girl scout on a White House trip and it becomes public. In real life Clinton lobbed bombs at Iraq and Bosnia to get the story off page one. In the movie a Bob Evans-type movie producer (Dustin Hoffman) is asked to create fake footage of a war with Albania, in order to get the girl scout story off page one. Think of the personal characterictics of Ron Reagn, then the personal characteristics of Bill Clinton. Nuf sed.

STEVEN TRAVERSAUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"STWRITES@AOL.COM

NIPPY AND TRUE-TO-LIFE POLITICAL SATIRE! (2004-06-06)

This riveting media yarn with some big acting stalwarts is so dead-on in the way it balances biting humor with its life-like pizzazz that PR trainers could almost use it as a training film.

It is above all a satire, but it makes no bones about including every American voter, reporter and politician in the cross-hairs of its comic cannon.

The slyest farcical element of the film is the fact that the president is wholly irrelevant. (He's not even a character, short of being an unheard voice on the other end of phone calls making superfluous suggestions, like that the cat should definately be white.)

No matter what your political persuasion, or how cynically you regard the goings-on in the White House (or any other political helm), you will surely find something entertaining in this hilarious yet very, very intelligent film.

6 out of 5 stars in terms of recommendation. In other words, buy it.

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