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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: New Line
Salesrank: 5198
Released: July 29, 1998 |
| Our Price: $4.29 |
| Used Price: $2.35 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Robert DeNiro stars as a Washington spinmaster who needs a war to distract public's attention from a sex scandal involving the President. Dustin Hoffman received an Academy Award nomination for his role in this biting political satire.
Description of Wag the Dog (New Line Platinum Series):
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
Wag the Dog (New Line Platinum Series) Reviews:
Very Good Movie 
2009-09-02 - Great performances form both Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. Eventhough, I need to say that it wasn't a very demmanding script, the movie generally speaking reflects a grand critic towards the US politics and how we the citizens of this Great Country react
A must see 
2009-09-01 - This is one of the best films I have ever seen. I have watched it multiple times and it is just so good for so many reasons. These include the plot, the actors, the dialogue, the script, the filming. It is bittingly satirical as well as frighteningly plausible. Highly recommended.
basic funny situation
2009-05-20 - I can appreciate incredibly funny people being on top of things so the rest of the world seems as clueless as it usually is, but when I watched Wag the Dog this morning, Anne Heche captured everything I am supposed to feel about little girls, but I just don't feel that way anymore. When people start getting upset over a bunch of dogs because a kitten would have been just fine, my own inner feelings start to come out.
Wonderful satire
2009-03-21 - Loosley based on Clinton's misadventures with Monica, this movie is a a real gem, oft overlooked. De Niro, Hoffman and Heche work very well together in faking a war to take the heat away from their President after he is accused of molesting a Firefly girl in the Oval Office. The supporting cast, including Woody Harrelson, do an incredible job, and the music by Dire Strait's Mark Knofler complements the on-screen action perfectly.
While the film itself in amusing, its point is well taken as to the power of the media, and how often we, as viewers, take what we see as gospel truth. Highly recommended.
CLINTON PARODY
2009-02-07 - "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.
