Hollywood and Presidential Power in "Wag the Dog"

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Hollywood and Presidential Power in "Wag the Dog"

Essay

"Wag the Dog" is one of the great American political satires which is a Barry Levinson film released in 1997. It is about a president suddenly buried deep in sex scandal just days before he was almost certain to be re-elected, and the efforts of his staff to divert America's attention away from the scandal with the help of a professional spin doctor and a Hollywood producer. In the film both Hollywood and the President play a significant role, despite the fact that the president is represented by his " staff ".

?h? completely fake war, written and produced by a top Hollywood producer and a presidential Mr. Fix-It does have a serious message to impart - Don't believe everything you see on TV. Parents tell their kids that the man on TV isn't really dead, it's all fake, and we all know that movies and dramas aren't real, they're written and acted. We watch documentaries and biographies and absorb the information as the truth. When we watch the news at 7:00 pm every evening, and read the paper over coffee and breakfast, we believe everything reported. And why shouldn't we? Isn't it our right to know what's going on in the world and to not have the struggle of trying to separate fact from fiction? Unfortunately, we may think this is our right, but we do have to take a more critical look at the information departed from the media.
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In the movie the war is created when allegations of sexual misconduct are directed at the president 11 days before the election. Conrad Bean (Robert De Niro) is called on by the President's staff to take the heat off of the President. He comes up with the brilliant idea to create a false war with Albania. "Why Albania?" "Well, what do you know about Albania?" "Nothing." "Exactly." It is all about ignorance. He chose Albania just because he doesn't know anything about it. He hires top movie producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) to help him with the story ...

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