Wag the Dog
Short description
With a presidential election only days away, a sex scandal threatens the incumbent's campaign. A Washington troubleshooter is brought in to bury the story, and he turns to a Hollywood producer for help. Together they manufacture a war overseas, complete with a staged conflict, a patriotic song and a rescued prisoner, so that television coverage will move on to something else. The deception has to be kept running until voters cast their ballots.
Barry Levinson directed the film, the fourteenth of the twenty-eight features he has made, following Sleepers and preceding Sphere. David Mamet and Hilary Henkin wrote the screenplay, and Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Levinson produced. Dustin Hoffman plays the producer and De Niro the fixer, with Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, Denis Leary and Willie Nelson among the large credited cast and crew of 101 and 212 respectively. Made for 15 million dollars, it took about 64 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from 93,000 votes and on TMDB 6.9/10 from 1,096, while a critics' rating of 7.7/10 from 78 reviews puts professional notices above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Winifred Ames was originally written for a man.
- The film features an interview with James Belushi, who claims to be Albanian. In reality, Belushi is the son of Albanian immigrants.
- Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman filmed without an advance—Hoffman and Levinson made this film during a break from producing 'Sphere' (1998).
- During the filming of the movie, Hoffman, De Niro, and Levinson met with the then-President of the United States, Bill Clinton. “So, what is this movie about?” Clinton asked De Niro. De Niro looked at Levinson, hoping for an answer. Levinson, in turn, looked at Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one left to pass the buck to, later recalled: “Well, I just started tap dancing. I don’t even remember what I said.”
- Members of the RCC Marching Tigers participated in the funeral scene with a military band.
- "Wag the Dog" is a term used by American political strategists to describe a method of covering up a scandal by artificially creating a new, attention-grabbing problem capable of distracting the public from the original scandal.
- The scene where tied shoes hang on telephone and electrical wires was filmed on East Capitol Street, a few blocks from the Capitol. The film crew forgot to take several pairs of shoes, and they continued to hang there for several years.
- The film is based on Larry Bainhart's book "American Hero".
- The phrase “Don't change horses midstream” was the slogan of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential campaign during the American Civil War.
- The back of director Barry Levinson can be seen in a cameo during the opening scene on the film set.
- Conrad’s phrase, “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow,” is a quote from WWII General George S. Patton.
- The name of Schumann's drug, “Prozalium,” is a combination of the names of the drugs “Prozac” and “Valium.”
- The phone number for the talk show—(800) 555-0199—appears in many films and television shows because it is the only number starting with the digits “(800) 555” reserved by telephone companies as a permissible “dummy” for such entertainment industry needs.
- The computer game The Sims Medieval features a reference to this film—in the quest “Deception,” the king needs to distract attention from his advisor’s affair with a foreign princess, and he can choose between a fake epidemic and a fake war.
- Dustin Hoffman based his character, Stanley Motss, on Hollywood producer Robert Evans.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
