Wag the Dog
Directed by	Barry Levinson
Produced by	Barry Levinson
Written by	Hilary Henkin David Mamet
Starring	Dustin Hoffman Robert De Niro Anne Heche Denis Leary William H. Macy Willie Nelson
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	1997
Running time	97 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Anne Heche about a Washington spin doctor (De Niro) who distracts the electorate from a presidential sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood producer (Hoffman) to construct a fake war. The scheme enlists the musical talents of Mark Knopfler (musical producer) & Willie Nelson (who creates a theme song for the 'war'). Denis Leary, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, Woody Harrelson (as the fabricated Lieutenant Kije-like "Schumann") and William H. Macy also appear. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (503x755, 60 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Barry Levinson Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. ... Barry Levinson Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. ... Hilary Henkin (born November 19, 1962, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American screenwriter and producer, nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award in 1997 for her work on the screenplay of Wag the Dog. ... David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Robert Mario De Niro Jr. ... Anne Celeste Heche (IPA: ) (born May 25, 1969) is an American actress, director and screenwriter. ... Denis Leary (born Denis Colin Leary on August 18, 1957) is an Golden Globe Award-nominated and Emmy Award-nominated American actor, comedian, writer and director. ... Image:William h macy. ... Willie Nelson (born William Hugh Nelson, 30 April 1933) is an American entertainer and songwriter, born and raised in Abbott, Texas. ... New Line Cinema, founded in 1967, is one of the major American film studios. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1997. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Robert Mario De Niro Jr. ... Anne Celeste Heche (IPA: ) (born May 25, 1969) is an American actress, director and screenwriter. ... Nickname: Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Country United States Federal District District of Columbia Government  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... A sex scandal is a scandal involving allegations or information about embarrassing sexual activities, such as adultery, being made public. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ... Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE, D.Mus. ... Willie Nelson (born William Hugh Nelson, 30 April 1933) is an American entertainer and songwriter, born and raised in Abbott, Texas. ... The theme music of a radio or television program is a melody closely associated with the show, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits. ... Denis Leary (born Denis Colin Leary on August 18, 1957) is an Golden Globe Award-nominated and Emmy Award-nominated American actor, comedian, writer and director. ... Andrea Martin (born January 15, 1947 in Portland, Maine) is an American actress and comediennne of Armenian descent. ... Kirsten[1] Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actress, known for her roles in Interview with the Vampire, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Bring It On, as well as Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film series. ... Woodrow Woody Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actor. ... Lieutenant Kije (Подпоручик Киже) is a short story by the Soviet author Yuri Nikolaevich Tynyanov (1894-1943) published in 1927. ... Image:William h macy. ...

Wag the Dog was produced and directed by Barry Levinson. Hilary Henkin and David Mamet co-wrote the screenplay. The film is based on the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart. The book, however, differs greatly from the picture. In the book the president is specifically George Herbert Walker Bush and the fake war operation is explicitly Desert Storm. Barry Levinson Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. ... Hilary Henkin (born November 19, 1962, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American screenwriter and producer, nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award in 1997 for her work on the screenplay of Wag the Dog. ... David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... American Hero is a novel written by Larry Beinhart in 1993. ... Larry Beinhart is an American Edgar Award winning author. ... George H. W. Bush - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... See also: 2003 invasion of Iraq and Gulf War (disambiguation) C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. ...

The film explores serious themes, such as the manipulation of the mass media and public opinion, with a comedic sensibility. The film drew attention at the time for similarities to the Clinton sex scandal, although the movie also makes reference to the Persian Gulf War as an example of war used as an electoral tactic. The idea of war as a creation of the media is not, of course, original to the movie. The French postmodernist Jean Baudrillard's ideas in particular are relevant to a discussion of the movie — see for example his essay The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Public Opinion is a book on media and democracy by Walter Lippmann. ... The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. ... Combatants US-led Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf, Peter de la Billière, Khalid bin Sultan Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded see section below The Gulf War or the Persian Gulf War (16 January 1991–28 February 1991)[1][2... Postmodernist architecture of the Stata Center by Frank Gehry Sydney Opera House The term Postmodernism (sometimes referred to as Pomo, Po-Mo, or PoMo [1], [2], [3]) was coined in the early 1960s to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture, founding the postmodern architecture. ... Jean Baudrillard (July 29, 1929 – March 6, 2007) (IPA pronunciation: [1]) was a French cultural theorist, philosopher, political commentator, and photographer. ... The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, a book by Jean Baudrillard, is a translation of 3 essays published in Liberation between January and March 1991. ...

The title of the movie is taken from the joke: "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog." Interpretations differ as to the meaning of this metaphor. Some suggest the dog is public opinion, and the tail represents the media; the dog is the media, and the tail is political campaigns; or the dog is the people, and the tail is the government. Or, when considering the personal relations in the movie, the dog is the president and the tail represents his PR assistants, who immediately assume the authority for the damage control. Moreover, the expression "the tail wagging the dog" refers to any case where something of greater significance is driven by something lesser. Damage control is the term used in the Merchant navy, maritime industry and navies for the emergency control of situations that may hazard the sinking of the ship. ...

Writing credits

Controversy surrounds the writing credits of the movie. Original drafter Henkin took the films producers to court and threatened to quit the Writers Guild of America after director Barry Levinson chose not to award her a screenwriting credit.

As a reviewer wrote at the time of the film's release:

According to Levinson, Mamet had never read the novel nor Henkin's script, and the only commonality between Henkin's draft and the shooting script was the premise of a make-believe war. Citing clear-cut differences between the two scripts, including the entire Hollywood-angle and the soldier left behind enemy lines in Mamet's creation, Levinson appealed the ruling, but was rebuffed. [1]

Coincidence

Less than a month after the movie was released, President Bill Clinton was embroiled in a sex scandal arising from his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Over the course of 1998 and early 1999, as the scandal dominated American politics, the US engaged in three military options: Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign in Iraq that took place as the U.S. House of Representatives debated articles of impeachment against Clinton; Operation Infinite Reach, a pair of missile strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan just three days after Clinton admitted in a nationally televised address that he had an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky; and Operation Allied Force, a 78-day-long NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that began just weeks after Clinton was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. ... Combatants United States, UK Iraq Commanders General Tony Zinni Saddam Hussien Strength 30,500 unknown Casualties none 600-2,000 dead Operation Desert Fox was the military codename for a major four-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from December 16-December 19, 1998 by the United States and United... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... Depiction of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, then President of the United States, in 1868. ... Operation Infinite Reach was a US cruise missile strike on purported terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan on August 20, 1998. ... Monica Lewinsky receives a hug from U.S. President Bill Clinton during a fundraising event in Washington, DC Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman who was thrust into the public limelight after having a private sexual affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton, conducted while... An USAF F-15E takes off from Aviano, Italy Operation Allied Force aka Kosovo-NATO War was NATOs military operation against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that lasted from 24 March to 11 June 1999 and is considered a major part of Kosovo War. ... NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ... Capital Belgrade Language(s) Serbian Government Republic President  - 1992 - 1993 Dobrica Ćosić  - 1993 - 1997 Zoran Lilić  - 1997 – 2000 Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević  - 2000 - 2003 Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Prime Minister  - 1992 - 1993 Milan Panić  - 1993 - 1998 Radoje Kontić  - 1998 - 2000 Momir Bulatović  - 2000 - 2001 Zoran Žižić  - 2001 - 2003 DragiÅ¡a Pe...

Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, charged that the former operation was an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal, and Serb state television went so far as to broadcast Wag The Dog in the midst of NATO attacks on Serbia. The video cassette version of the film contains an extended feature after the credits that has commentary about the movie in the context of the Lewinsky scandal by the producers of the movie and Tom Brokaw. Chester Trent Lott, Sr. ... Thomas John Brokaw (born February 6, 1940 in Webster, South Dakota) is a popular American television journalist, presently working on regularly scheduled news documentaries for the NBC television network, and is the former NBC News anchorman and managing editor of the program NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. ...

Music

The film featured many songs created entirely for the fictitious campaign waged by the protagonists: "Good Old Shoe", "We Guard Our American Borders" and "The Men of the 303" are but salient examples. Strangely, none of these pieces made it onto the soundtrack which was released on CD: it featured only the title track, by British guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, and seven of Knopfler's instrumentals. In light of the popularity of the pieces, the soundtrack received many negative responses from buyers who expected the songs to appear on the soundtrack as a matter of course and considered the excision wholly unjustified.

See also

• Astroturfing, a controversial public relations practice depicted in the film
• Canadian Bacon, a film about an American war started for similar reasons
• List of Films about Television

Astroturfing is a term for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior. ... Canadian Bacon is a 1995 comedy/satire, and the only fictional film written, directed and produced by Michael Moore. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Wag the Dog

• Wag the Dog at the Internet Movie Database