Film Analysis of "Wag the Dog" (political and social satire)

Analysis of "Wag the Dog"


Wag the Dog is a satire produced by Barry Levinson and written by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet. I chose to watch and write about this movie because I heard it was funny. However, I thought it was actually kind of pathetic. It stared Dustin Hoffman who played Conrad Brean and Robert DeNiro who played Stanley Motss.

The plot is based on a president who is accused of having a sexual relationship with an under aged girl two weeks before his re-election. But before anyone could think about what the president was up to, Robert DeNiro manipulates the public into believing there is a war going on with Albania with the help of Dustin Hoffman who arranges a war scene that would be seen worldwide on CNN. It was staged with a young Albanian girl (Kirsten Dunst) running from the small town, which was being bombed while holding a small kitten in her arms while screaming, and the only person who could resolve the situation was the current president.

From what I understood, our government has so much power that they can make us believe such a lie. It makes me not trust the government even more than ever. It was a message trying to prove a slogan, “Don’t change horses in mid-stream.” It was used throughout the movie in commercials, which was the message I think they were trying to get across that changing presidents in such a time of need is ridiculous.

The message in Wag the Dog wasn’t very believing. Why not change horses in midstream? Who ever said one can’t change their mind. Especially when it comes to politics and the government. They have a right to change their mind mid-stream and so do we and that is what gives us the choice to vote and pick whom and what we want. For instance, we are able to choose our president to our husbands. So I don’t have a set decision if the slogan was good or bad but all I know is I couldn’t come up with anything better except maybe a song, which they did.