Stanley Motss
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Jan 9, 1998 · Wag the Dog: Directed by Barry Levinson. With Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson. Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
Wag the dog is, as a political term, the act of creating a diversion from a damaging issue usually through military force. It stems from the generic use of the term to mean a small and seemingly unimportant entity (the tail) controls a bigger, more important one (the dog).
Two weeks prior to reelection, the United States president lands in the middle of a sex scandal. In need of outside help to quell the situation, presidential adviser Winifred Ames (Anne Heche ...
- (78)
- Comedy, Drama
- R
Aug 20, 2019 · Wag the Dog is a comedy about a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who use falsenews to fabricate a war.
When the US president is caught up in a scandal days before the election, it seems his chances of being re-elected are slim. So an advisor decides that a war is needed to divert attention. Unfortunately there isn't one so they get a Hollywood producer to create one that the Prez can heroically end!
Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro), a top spin doctor, is brought in by presidential aide Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a fictional war in Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead.
The tail wagging the dog is an idiom that usually refers to something important or powerful being controlled by something less so. Its earliest use is in the 1858 play Our American Cousin. The 1997 film Wag the Dog shortened the phrase and added the additional meaning of "superfluous (military) action in order to distract from domestic scandal."
