Wag the Dog: Difference between revisions

Conrad decides to create a fictional war with Albania. He recruits Hollywood producer Stanley Motss ([[Dustin Hoffman]]) to create the illusion of the ongoing war. Actors play war orphans, an army convict is cast as a war hero, etc. All broadcast by American networks as real news. They take advantage of the relative obscurity of Albania among the public to make up details as they go.

 

 

This title is, of course, unrelated to [[Tropey the Wonder Dog]].

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Stanley Motss comments that "there is no Academy Award for producing." Who do you think accepts the Oscar for Best Picture?

** Probably not a case of this, since Barry Levinson was nominated for Best Picture before this movie came out. More likely, it's just Motss being egotistical.

* [[Everyone Knows Morse]]: "Old Shoe" ripped Morse code into his shirt.

* [[Indy Ploy]]: Sort of done by the spin man, as he has to gauge the media's reaction and then feed them.

** {{spoiler|Also the president, who was able to divert attention away from his actions with the Firefly Girl.}}

* [[Killed to Uphold The Masquerade]]: Chillingly portrayed: {{spoiler|Motss refuses to keep quiet about the fake war, and in the next scene, he's reported as having died of a heart attack in his estate.}}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Dustin Hoffman based Motss look and mannerisms on real-world producer [[Robert Evans]]. Evans is said to have joked on occasion that he was ''really'' good in that film.

* [[Post Mortem Conversion]]: The propaganda spin-doctors turn a mentally ill rapist into a faked war hero. When they can't control him, they get him killed. This is a huge improvement for them, since his corpse is easy to control. [[Sham Ceremony|Public burial of the "hero" ensues]].

* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: Quickly pressed into vinyl and smuggled into the Library of Congress.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: Invoked. Brean tells one of the president's staff to make one of these to the press, saying that the reason the president is late returning home has absolutely nothing to do with the B-3 bomber or the situation in Albania. And right after that, that they misspoke and that there is no such plane and no situation. The results are predictable, and pretty soon everybody's attention is focused on finding out what's going on in Albania instead of on the girl.

** [[Squick|You sure you wanna know?]]

** There's another example: at the end of the film, there's a news flash telling us that an Albanian terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for a recent bombing. We don't find out if it's real or fake, who's running things now that {{spoiler|Motss is dead}}, or why, if it's real, they'd want the war to continue.