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Wag the Dog Dir: Barry Levinson Stars: Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche. Nothing is too big for Stanley Motss, big time Hollywood producer. The star of your show gets shot? No problem. The plane carrying your crew crashes in the middle of nowhere? He's seen worse. You should have been there on his last project. Motss takes charge and takes care of problems - no matter how big or how small. So when the President of the United States gets caught with a teenaged "Firefly Girl" a week before the election, it seems only natural his spin-doctor, Conrad Brean, would call the best man for his production. It would take a war to divert the nations attention from the scandal. But in politics, you do what it takes. Dustin Hoffman plays Stanley and Robert De Niro plays Conrad in the Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog. Hilary Henkin and David Mamet wrote the script. That's enough talent to carry any production, but Wag the Dog has an incredible supporting cast. Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Craig T. Nelson, Woody Harrelson, and William H. Macy also lend their talents to this remarkable film. Wag the Dog is a cynical little screen gem. The whole concept of starting a war (even a fake one) to divert the public from a presidential scandal seems completely over the top at first, satire too wicked for it's own good. Then you sit down and watch the whole thing develop. Conrad manages the whole production from the shadows, where the public never sees him. In a secret meeting with White House advisor Winifred Ames (Heche), Conrad starts the machinery. Spokespeople deny the existence of new military technology, deny there are any military operations underway, before the press corps can even ask about the scandal. When the appetite of the masses is whetted and their curiosity runs wild, Conrad turns to Motss to "produce" his greatest epic. The scariest thing about it is that, unless you're hopelessly idealistic about how our government works, you'll start to see how something like this could happen. Lots of food for thought here. At one point, a crewmember talks about the Gulf War being the mot expensive production yet. Of course you'll be hesitant to accept the possibility, but it will linger for a while after you see Wag the Dog. The entire cast and crew shine in this film. De Niro and Hoffman finally get to spar, and Levinson and Mamet give them plenty of material. The dialogue is quick and clear, and the results sometimes hilarious, sometimes ponderous. Harrelson gets to play a complete loon, and Denis Leary seems quite at home playing the Fad King, someone he would probably despise in real life. It's worth the price if admission just for the surreal quality of seeing Hoffman, Leary, and Willie Nelson as part of the same team. So believe Wag the Dog or don't, but when we start sending B-3 bombers to Albania... -Nick |
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