Wag the Dog

By Jan Tik

"Why does the dog wag its tail?

Because the dog is smarter than the tail.

If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog."







That is the caption at the beginning of the movie Wag the Dog. Who is really in charge? It is the ones that know how to manipulate the perceptions of others. In this movie a spin doctor hires a Hollywood producer to use images and music to convince people that we are in a war against Albania. This fictitious war is supposed distract the public from a sex scandal involving the president of the United States. This movie was produced near the time of the Desert Storm operation and President Clinton's sex scandal. Just following that scandal, America bombed terrorists strongholds in Africa. This leads to the suspicion that the producer Barry Levinson believes that government officials sometimes engage in conflicts to gain favor and support from the American public.

The director Barry Levinson has a Jewish background. Some of the techniques used to demonize the Albanian Muslims in the movie were used by the Nazis in Germany to turn the public against the Jews. Albanians might be offended by this movie. They were described as shifty looking and that it would be easy to blame a war on them. There are also references to Muslim groups in that country. These are stereotypical depictions of Muslims as being trouble makers and causing wars.

In this movie they used props to put into perspective who has the real power and money in the U.S.A. The movie producers house was bigger and more opulent than the White House. This point was solidified when the movie producer made the president of the United States wait on the phone till he was done making his point.In the end, it was the spin doctor that had all of the power.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/

The director used visual means to focus our attention on the points he was making. As the president was reading a teleprompter during his speech, the teleprompter directed him to pause and take a drink of water and clear his throat. This is drawing attention to the subtle tricks spin doctors use to manipulate and emphasize the issues.