Responding to "Wag the Dog"
Write about a favourite scene in the movie. Post your response here as a comment. (Maximum 250 words; minimum 150 words) Make a critical comment, modeling your answer on Ebert's writing. Be specific in your description and be clear on whether you think the scene was (or was not) effective. What were the filmmakers trying to say in the scene?
Script (by David Mamet) for the film, Wag the Dog.
Script (by David Mamet) for the film, Wag the Dog.
Bring your writing to class, word processed, next Wednesday.
Also, please view this video of the "wag the dog" technique being used on the public in 1990 (first Gulf War).
Congress Testimony of Nayirah (Read the description below the video before you watch.) Note your reaction to this information and bring to class, but do not post it at the blog.
Thesis topics from both classes
Sample 725-Word Essay for Persuasive Essay assignment
Thesis topics from both classes
Sample 725-Word Essay for Persuasive Essay assignment
21 comments:
“Of course there’s a war. I’m watching it on television,” Conrad Brean asserts to the CIA man who has just told him that there is no war, based on spy satellite reports, the Canadian government (!) and the Albanians. Thus begins one of my favourite scenes in the film, Wag the Dog.
William H. Macey’s character, CIA Agent Charles Young, is adamant about what the spy satellites show, which doesn’t faze Brean in the least. In fact, he challenges the agent to a verbal duel about his (and Brean’s) true work for the government.
Beginning with “If there’s no threat, then what good are you?” Brean goes on to say that “The war of the future is nuclear terrorism.” He argues forcefully that, to protect the American way of life, a war (or enemy) is a necessity. Whether it is a truthful enemy matters less or not at all.
The film predicts the future of American government policy while, at the same time, making a satirical and essential point. To do so, the writers needed only look at the historical record. To my mind, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best, warning Americans in his farewell speech in 1961 of a “military-industrial complex” and that “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
The 2010 U.S. military budget took up 20% of American’s GDP and represents 40% of world defense spending! I think, alas, that Brean has a point.
—265 words
Although this movie’s premise is a dramatization of political “spin”, there are more than a few grains of truth to it. The tactic of misdirection by purposeful manipulations (some information amplified and exaggerated while other information is purposely omitted) has been used routinely by all leaders of nations to win battles before they are ever fought.
In the movie when Brean is led into the situation room where they are going to hatch this farce of a plan for a “fake war”, he turns to Ames and says “Tell'em what they need to know.” This inference is that they don’t need to know all the facts, just the “hand picked” tidbits. In the political arena, the establishment feels that the public doesn’t need to know all the details, and that politics is too complicated for Joe/Josephine Lunchbox to understand. They count on our heavy reliance on the media to summarize current events for us into “sound bites”. I feel it’s human nature to take something at face value, and it’s easy. I was thoroughly entertained by the movie and I laughed often, especially at Dustin Hoffman’s character (in the end his ego got the better of him); the truth of it scares me a little though. Diversion tactics are especially useful when it involves a scandal and politicians, but like Roger Ebert says “It is getting harder and harder for satire to stay ahead of reality”. Clearly, perception is not always reality, so who can we believe?
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Karen Smith
This movie was actually more interesting and comedic than I originally expected. My most favourite scene was when Brean and his company met the William Schumann, portrayed by Woody Harrison. “ As long as you get me back for the beans”, that line cracked me up. In the movie, Schumann was allegedly trapped and left behind enemy lines in Albania, fighting courageously for his country. I actually thought that Schumann, before his appearance in the film, was going to be this composed and respected man of the military. Quite the opposite actually. Who would have thought that he was in prison for 13 years and with a mental sickness! What was interesting was the reaction and heartfelt concerns Americans had for Schumann. He was portrayed by the media and by Brean’s company as a hero. Many Americans were deceived not knowing Schumann’s true nature. But after people heard the” good old Shoe” song, they became inspired. Next thing I see are shoes being thrown up into trees and power lines, the American people’s display of their patriotism. I thought to myself after the movie,” all that work to divert people’s attention from the presidents “advances” on little girls?”. It shows how far people are willing to go to persuade others.
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“You want to win this election, you better change the subject. You want to change this subject, you better have a War. What do you need? It's got to be quick, it's got to be dramatic you got to have an enemy”, Brean said to Ames about his plan to divert people’s attention from the bad publicity of the president. Hence, one of my favorite scenes in the film, Wag the Dog.
Brean was played by Robet di Niro as the president’s trusted man and he tried to convince Moss played by Dustin Hoffman to make the movie project to upstage a distraction from the presidents’ controversy. The film depicts a subject that is so controversial. Nevertheless, it tackles a very truth dilemma in our society.
In the political arena we really see this kind of “lie” just to uphold a position, thus making it called “dirty politics”. Anywhere in the world we are blinded by the people who try to manipulate things in order for them to succeed in their selfish aspiration. During the Iraq war, there is a report that President Bush makes that war as a diversion for the purpose of controlling the country so that they can have access to the oil industry.
Sometimes we are so easy to believe in what we see and hear and we don’t know the real story behind it. It’s an eye opener movie for us to examine, interrogate, and be aware for everything that’s being presented to us, be it in politics, media and others. (256 words)
In Wag the Dog, the characters are portaryed very well done. It invites the audience to go into
the story and explore to find out more interesting facts. Conrad Brean the spin doctor, the head
of the scecret association in the basement of the White House. They want to create an
distraction because there was a leakage of information, with the election only days away.
Schuman and Ames flew from Los Angles to Washington. Trying to create an false assumption, by
establishing a fake war. They asked the famous Hollywood producer, Stanley Motss, played by
David Hoffman.
The scence which I enjoyed the most is the producing the fake war commercial in Albania, I really
like advanced equipments, it is a surprise for me to see what kinds of products the directors use
during a movie. According to my knowledge that the Hollywood producer was murdered by
Schuman’s associates, the media says that Stanley died of a heart attack which means they cover
it well. Shuman’s intentions are to start another war or something as equally bad, which alerted
the CIA. Wars are the most devasting and crucial thing ever, and many die from it, I hope that the
CIA can arrest those two and give the innocent lives that was lost during the war, a peace offering
to forever rested in heaven
when we start the film i though this one does political old boring movies that we got to watch and respond to it, but after watching the movie for few minute it turn out the movie is not that bad after all. My favorite scene that i enjoyed the most is when After the CIA discovers that the war was staged and ended it, the spin doctors invent a war-veteran, which its nickname is “good old shoe”, who was left behind in Albania. This is told in the news again, to make the population believe that. To enforce the american citizens’ patriotism the presidents’ employees drive around at night and throw shoes, as the veteran’s symbol according to his name, over trees and traffic lights. A whole movement starts, where people throw shoes themselves, march on the street and wear t-shirts with “Save Shoe”. Everybody gets enthusiastic to save good old shoe and start to believe that this person really exists. The shoes was an symbol to whom that not care, to show the people refer directly to the reality of the war through that object. I think that this scene was very effective on people because they used this symbol to remember the lost solder and to get people attention, and this show how small little thing needed to get the people attention, and this is to me (wag the dog). (233)
The movie revealed to me how the media, which sometimes scarified its honesty for the sake of the country’s politics and interests, could persuade people by using fake images and news. My favourite image was when Brean said, “fantastic”. He was proud of the hard work which diverted people’s attention from the president’s case of luring an underage “firefly girl” to the fabricated Albanian war by producing the image of a sorrowful young girl running across the burning bridge with her white “president choice” calico kitten in an Albanian village where nobody knows of its existence or cares about it. Moreover, Stanly Moss, the producer, shared the victory by saying, “This only the beginning, wait till we get the song –image merchandising tie-ins, this only the beginning”. Indeed, they presented William Schumann (Woody Harrelson) as a hero who I thought would be a high ranking officer who was rescued from the hands of the Albanian. However, he was just a prisoner with mental sickness and anxiety .It does not matter what the hidden secrets are; all that matters are the images we see and the news we hear. The film which was written by David Mamet and Hilary Henkin showed us how the media has a big effect in misleading people or refraining from telling them the truth. But these days, we have more choices to search for the truth ourselves because of the variety of the social networks with current and accurate information.(244)words
“Fifty-Four, Forty or Fight. What does that mean?” Brean asked before he begins lecturing Hoffman about the idea of producing a war pretense during the presidential election campaign in order to maintain voters’ confidence, hence, embarks one of my favourite scenes in the film, Wag the Dog.
Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman playing the role of Stanley Moss, the Oscar producer, is known to be a solid devotee of the present administration. Given his profound background in the field of show business, he was chosen by a desperate-for-a-win minded Aide, Brean, to produce the said campaign.
However, it did not take long for Brean to convince the producer to produce the campaign. It only took him couple of citing of fake wars that occurred in the past, and a brief explanation that the war is going to be like a “pageant.” Also, Brean assured that Moss will get his “back end,” which Moss refers to as the money, once it is done.
The film predicted the future of American electoral propagandas, which involve fake terrorism, money and media. The movie is never wrong let alone the late American administration. In a major national security speech this spring of this year, President Obama is, also at it, saying the U.S. is at war with “Al Qaeda, the Taliban(!), and their associated forces.” Thus, it is becoming clearer now that, regardless of the intentions, the current administration will try to make sure people stay on their side even if it causes fear, cost trillions, or deceive the media. And with his Obamacare at stake, expect Taliban talks to rise any day from now.
Where Am I? The world that I see is the real world? When I have finished viewing the movie “wag the dog," a series of questions remain in my mind. The beginning of the movie is very tight, and even messy. It is about a president sexual scandal which is discovered two weeks right before the presidential election. As a team members of the election, the presidential adviser Winifred Ames brings in a political consultant and spin doctor Conrad Brean. They started a series of urgent and intense actions to attract the attentions of the public in order to recover the crisis. They created a virtual war, a hero, and two touching songs. I have to say that they are genius. The songs are so touching, and I really involved in them. I was impressed most by the scenes in this movie when many famous singers, I believed so, were singing the express song “old shoes”, and becoming an effective tool of the media. They makes the whole event is no longer a far from the life of the war, as it can be dragged to a mother’s son, and also the flesh. I am astonished by the facts in this politically charged world and wondered if we are really able to distinguish True or False? -216words
Why Not?
Brean and Ames are walking through the airport; Brean has a realization that the fake war is going to take place in Albania. Ames asks why the ‘war’ is going to take place in Albania, to which Brean responds “What do you know about Albania?”
Ames admits she knows nothing about Albania and asks “What did Albania ever do to us?” Brean counterpoints with the question “What did they ever do for us…?”
This is my favorite scene in “Wag the Dog” because it shows the different perspectives that can derive from the same topic. Ames struggles to understand why Brean chose Albania to start a fake war with because they have never done anything to hinder America, while Brean sees Albania as a place that has never attempted to helped America so it is the perfect place to target.
The filmmakers were successful in making the airport scene effective in showing the viewer how the government can change the attention of the population exactly the same way Brean changed the perspective of Ames. I find it scary how easy it is to distract a population from a serious situation by telling a lie: and that this occurs in real life not just movies.
-204 words
In America, it takes an aggressive presidential campaign. President who wants to be re-elected tangled himself in a sex scandal. Brought by presidential advisers, specialist of public relations and propaganda Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) offers an even thicker affair that will hide the scandal.
My favourite was the scene in the airplane, where Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), president’s secretary, asks Brean why he wants to stage a war.
“...but you went to win this election, you wanna change this subject, you better have a War. What do you need? It's gotta be quick, it's gotta be dramatic, you got to have an enemy. Okay? What do you need in an enemy? Somebody you fear. Who do you fear? Somebody you don't know.” he explains.
Robert De Niro’s art of acting fits the character he plays. Mr. Brean is a brilliant psychologist and great manipulator. He knows how to manipulate publics’ perception. The best would be a small, fast and victorious war, which will focus the public on the White House, and will trigger the patriotic feelings. He works (behind the scenes) spreading rumors, and then denying them, still, control the situation. What matters is not truth, but only what people see on TV.
Election campaign turns out to be a cheating school, to follow the goal of power. Americans/people have been led by politicians and media to believe in the “official” story. This movie reminds us of being discern; not every “seeing is believing.”-244 words
When Dustin Hoffman said, “It is a suitcase bomb,” and “It’s in, It’s in,” while he was rotating the map, the sound echoed by his finger that hit the map, and he said, “It’s in Canada.” This is one of my favourite scenes in the film “Wag the Dog” because Canada is a highly secure country, and it is hard to believe that the “Suitcase bomb” is carried into the US through Canada.
In that scene Hoffman said, “Albanian terrorists have placed a suitcase bomb in Canada and attempt to infiltrate the bomb into the USA.” Hoffman’s words show how countries are sacrificed by USA’s political plans. Furthermore, it does not matter if the politically sacrificed country is as weak and unknown as Albania or as powerful and famous as Canada.
Barry Levinson emphasizes, in the film “Wag the Dog,” the essence of the political manner and satire which we observe in most countries even though the movie is based on the US government and its political issues. Moreover,when Hoffman died, there was not any expressed emotional feeling; it was a vague scene as far as the cause of his death, just like the vagueness of most of today’s government actions.
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After CIA ended the fictitious war that Conrad Brean, an excellent spin-doctor (Robert De Niro) and Stanley Motss, Hollywood Producer (Dustin Huffman) created it, they ended with the idea of a war hero,”good old shoe”, for dissuaded the public attention from the shameful President's action. Just to polish the idea, they decided to drove at night, park in a random street, and throw old shoes to a tree, which it became a very interesting scene for me. As a result, a collective sense of strong patriotism rose, and people started to throw their shoes by themselves. Evidently, the scene reflects the ability that business media has to influence the way of thinking of an entire nation. Also, the movie, Wag the Dog, makes the audience reasoning over the credibility of the mass media. I think in this days, where technology and information are more reachable for everybody, is more difficult, but not impossible, for the government and media to be deceptive.
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While we are feeling so lucky to be born in this era that we don’t need to travel around but be able to access to information we need, we are relying on the new technology and media deeply. Over time, we get used to confide in media and believe we utilize media wisely, but we are actually manipulated by it.
When Ames asked why Brean chose Albania to create a war with, he asked her back, “What do you know about it?” “Nothing…” “Precisely.”
Since no one knows about it, no one will truly care about what happened there. Even when we are watching the international news from TV, or read them from papers, how much do we really know about it? How much do we really care about it?
I understand survivors of Typhoon Haiyan need our help, but I don’t really know if they will be fully benefited from our donation or it will become another pocket money for corrupt officials. Gambia has announced that it has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but how many people even know where Taiwan is? They rather discuss Miley Cyrus’ nudity.
Are we seeking the truth or simply expecting the excitements media could bring us? While we believe we are wagging “the tail”, are we wagged by “the tail?”
-217 words
The movie, “Wag the Dog” by Barry Levinson is interesting and full of humor. This movie has a wide variety of scenes which attract our attention, but my favorite scene was the one when a miserable Albanian girl (Kristen Dunst) ran away from rapists with her kitten during the fake war time. Stanley Motss (movie producer) was the main manipulator of the “fake war” who was using media manipulation techniques to make the scenes very real. I like the way of creating fake pictures of destroyed village and screams and presenting the kitten; before the kitten is created with special effects, it is a bag of tostitos. The fake war setting was going to spread on the news to influence the population about the sad and depressing situation in Albania at that time. The headlines of fake war in Albania distract the community and press from the Firefly Girl scandal. This scene shows how political parties with the help of media can control and keep away the public from the real issues prevailing in society.
The movie, “Wag the Dog” shows how a media and its manipulating techniques can influence the whole populace, and it makes us aware of how media can impacts us. It’s important to understand what the real meaning is lying behind the images and words and the way these are displayed to us. Thus, we shouldn’t believe immediately what we perceive, but rather we should think analytically about what is shown to us, whether it reveals the truth or not.
254 words
One of my favorite scenes from the film Wag the Dog, is where Ames is anxiously trying to express her doubt in Brean’s plan to divert the public’s attention away from the negative publicity. Ames asks Brean what will happen when the public finds out the war is fake, and Brean responds with “Who’s gonna tell’em”.
Ames with a puzzled look on her face doesn’t seem sold on this idea so Brean adds, “What did they find out about the Gulf War? One shot: one bomb, falling through the roof, building coulda been made of Legos.” Brean states, defending his point to Ames that the public is kept in the dark and only see what they need to see. This is a continuous pattern demonstrated throughout the film, really expressing how easily influenced the public is and how they can be led to believe anything.
I find this scene quite humorous yet at the same time it made me think. We as the public only know a small fraction of what goes on behind the scenes of the government and what we are told may not even be true. Basically, we see what they want us to see, and if something gets in the way of that they try and divert our attention back. This thought is kind of disturbing if you really think about it. We live in a “pageant” as Brean refers to it, we are the puppets and the government controls the strings.
-246 words
The scene in the airplane conversation between Brean and Ames convinced not only her but also me, that an ace pro took a chance to lobby allegedly war. Brean was sitting in the airplane’s chair, almost sleeping, and calmly explaining to Ames that it was not a new concept how without a war to have its “appearance”.
In order to distract the public from the undesirable digging before the election in history with a girl scout, he decided almost immediately to take advantage of unmistakable technology to create the image of the enemy. “It’s gotta be quick, it’s gotta be dramatic, you got to have an enemy. Okay? What do you need in an enemy? Somebody you fear. Who do you fear? Som’b’y you don’t know.”
The phenomenon of propaganda and its influence on the emotions and human’s mind is studied in the world universities for nearly eighty years. Propaganda is used in U.S. as a main key of political manipulation. I was even more surprised that almost all filmmakers are from the country where “brainwashing” was put to the professional level.
The media are a powerful propaganda tool helping to mask true motives of the small group of interested people. Thus, the invasion occurred in Somalia in 1993 by American troops under the guise of peacekeeping operation to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by the civil war. In fact, U.S. businesspersons bought up in Somalia for more than half of oil fields and need their complete control.
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“Change the story change the lead”. was one of the lines that got my attention in the movie “Wag The Dog”. Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) was a man that didn’t had scrupulousness when it came to divert peoples minds of something important. He only cared for money because he didn’t even got the glory of what he was abled to do. Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) was adamant at first, but got excited when they were able to pull the first stand.
“ Perfect Deny it even exist”. Meanwhile, he cooks up a phony international crisis with Albania”.
commented Roger Ebert about the movie when Conrad Brean was talking about how to divert public attention of the president’s previous scandal. He was stating that the media can say anything, and the public will believe it. In the movie he was making a war that never existed,yet that was not enough. Another story was needed to build, so he make a tale of a fallen soldier.
It was scary to see something like it, for I always thought that everything on the news were true. My husband said “ Americans will always have problems because they’re willing to lie to have access to other countries values”. I didn’t believe him, but now that I saw that movie I realized that they are capable of everything.
230 words
Adela Corvera
English 12 61609
20/11/2013
The movie was a bit discouraging to me. It was too far-fetched, which in turn made it
comical. My favourite scene was when Willie Nelson was directing the song about America. This song becomes the “spontaneous” anthem of the clip showing the Albanian girl fleeing her village with her kitten. With Nelson’s care-free demeanour combined with the words of the song, it made you feel all warm, fuzzy and patriotic. That was the whole effect the producers were hoping to have on the American people. I am quite certain there is many similar tactics being used by the current US government to manipulate the minds of every day American’s. It was really interesting when Brean asked “why does a dog wag it’s tail”? The answer was “Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail was smarter, it would wag the dog.” I interpret that as if to say, if the American people were so smart, they would be the ones running for president. If you could get past the bad acting and age of the film, the ideas were quite interesting. Throughout the movie there is many examples of double entendre. The producer makes many of them very easy to perceive.
-204 words
According to the traditional classification, “wag the dog” is a black comedy. Compared to the same type of popular movies 1970’s and 1980’s in France and Italian, the Hollywood directors gave a new mood to the audience. The most impressive scene for me is when Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) and Stanley Motss (Dustin Huffman) are standing the living room and watching the state funeral. They are so enjoy their work. Unlikely in France and Italian movies the government used super stars’ gossips or some fake series murder case to cover the political scandal, the American government has superb skills to lead the media and public to expose a “secret” that the government tried to hide. Actually this secret had never existed. They just used the public curious and a media called the fourth estate to dig something for fulfill their hungry about the truth, to avoid the focus on the real truth about government. In the real life, people like to say the government lies. But where the government tells a lie, people have different opinions. In the movie the media found a war hero William Schumann (Woody Harrelson) and gave him a state funeral. People thought the government has forgotten to bring their hero come back home. They forced the government to admit their neglect and achieve fair. People are happy. They thought themselves are hero. Who is misleading us, the government, the media or ourselves?
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