Hallo 
Dies ist meine erste "film review" und ich würde mich über jegliche Kritik, Verbesserungsvorschläge und auch Lob freuen! (Bitte nicht von der Länge erschrecken lassen :P)
Film review "Wag the dog"
„Don't change horses in a midstream“ is a slogan which appears frequently during the movie „Wag the dog“. It means not to change the leader when part-way through a campaign.
This comedy full of cynicism, humour and intelligence is directed by Barry Levinson and produced by him and Robert DeNiro. It is based on the political satire „American Hero“ by Larry Beinhart and was published in 1997.
The plot is, that the president had a sexual affair with a young girl before his eclection. It seems impossible to win the election after such a scandal. What can he do? The most important is to unify the public under the president and to safe thereby his position. And what could be more effective than a war produced only by the media?
But is it possible and effective to show a war in a fictual way? Can such a transmission make everything real? Can the public be convinced?
The spin doctor, played by Robert DeNiro answers all these questions and creates a situation that distracts the public from the president's scandalous affairs. He uses media manipulation techniques to show, that America is at war with Albania.
Such a hoax cannot be sustained without others getting in the way and therefore a lot of different people are involved which causes a lot of funny situations.
Besides the humour, Wag the Dog shows that the media is a business of making money and plays easily with the consumer.
The American public believes everything what is shown on TV and is whipped up into a madness using patriotism.
The president gets what he want: The general public follows the media and forgets his akward situation. The seem not to want to „change the horse in the midstream“.
Relating to the title, the „tail“ which wags the „dog“ symbolizes those who control the media, whereas the „dog“ is wagged by its own tail and represents the American people.
This situation is well shown in the movie, especially by the actors.
Beside Robert DeNiro playing Bream, there is Dustin Hoffmann playing Motss. It is funny to see them doing everything impossible and unimüossible to safe the presidents power.
My favorite performance in this movie is Anne Heche who plays the presidental aide Winifred Aimes. As the only woman involved in this action, she does not always know what to make of Breem, who takes control of everything. One minute she tries to be tough, but the next she is looking wide-eyed at his new crazy ideas.
This political satire full of black humour seems partly absurd, but shows some references to actual incidents. One can hear f. E something about the golf war.
Another interesting aspect is to compare Barry Lewinson's movie with the „Lewinsky-Affair“ which is about the President Clinton, who had a sexual relationship with the 22-year old intern Monica Lewinsky. This was as well a political scandal and Clinton let bomb the Irak in 1988, exactly during his impeachment. This operation was called „desert fox“.
In my opinion, „wag the dog“ is a funny comedy and critycal satire together.
On the one hand, there are a lot of funny situations which force to laugh. But on the other hand, the film shows the reality of the media and brings the viewer to think about it.
It is incredible to see how easy it is to make us people believe unreal things. And we are asking ourselves, if the media has already played with us.
In that respect, it is important to mention that the movie is from 1997, and the power of the media developed a lot during this time.
All in all, I recommend to watch this movie and I think it is a good alternative to other requested school materials, because it shows something intelectuell and funny at the same time.
In addition, it is suitable for teenagers.