Movie · 1997 · Comedy, Drama · 1h 37m · R · English
Curator score: 5.6/10 (141.2K ratings)
A comedy about truth, justice and other special effects.
Overview
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.6/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.54/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Metacritic: 74
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Barry Levinson
Production
New Line Cinema, Tribeca Productions, Baltimore Pictures, Punch Productions
Cast
Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, David Koechner, Michael Belson, Suzanne Cryer, John Michael Higgins, Suzie Plakson, Jason Cottle, Harland Williams, Sean Masterson, Bernard Hocke, Jenna Byrne, Maurice Woods
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, fast-moving political satire with a nasty streak and strong performances, especially from Hoffman and De Niro. Its central idea is so potent that the film still feels unnervingly current, even when the plotting gets repetitive.
Best for
Viewers who like cynical political satire
Fans of dialogue-driven 90s studio comedies
People interested in media manipulation and image-making
Audiences who enjoy darkly funny performances from major stars
Skip if
You want a warm or character-redemptive story
You need a deeply layered conspiracy thriller
You dislike broad cynicism or one-note satire
You’re looking for subtle humor rather than punchy, talky set pieces
Overview
Wag the Dog is one of those movies whose premise does half the work for it: a fake war manufactured to distract from a presidential scandal is an instantly legible, deeply nasty joke about power, media, and public gullibility. Barry Levinson keeps it moving with a clipped, transactional rhythm, and the film’s best scenes have the snap of a political backroom farce that has gone rotten at the core.
Worth noting
Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro make the conceit play as both comedy and menace. Hoffman’s showy producer energy bounces beautifully off De Niro’s deadpan operator, and the film gets a lot of mileage from watching professionals treat democracy like a branding problem. The movie’s satire can feel blunt, but the bluntness is part of the point: everyone is performing, and the audience is complicit.
Bottom line
What keeps it memorable is how little distance it has from modern political spectacle. Even when the script circles the same idea a bit too long, the film remains a clean, nasty artifact of media-era paranoia that now looks less like exaggeration than rehearsal. It’s not subtle, but it is durable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
cait (3★) · 910 likes
still in disbelief that the president in wag the dog distracts from his affair by starting a fake war in albania and then a year later bill clinton distracts from his affair by starting a real war in iraq... satire is dead
Dakota Joaquin (4★) · 743 likes
Bill Clinton watched this movie and thought “holy fuck that’s a good idea!”
bulletproofQpid (5★) · 306 likes
"Why Albania?""Why not?""What have they done to us?""What have they done FOR us? What do you know about them?""Nothing.""See? They keep to themselves. Shifty. Untrustable."
That's the difference between the Clinton years and the Trump years - we thought that it was possible that we were getting a bunch of bullshit from Bill, but we couldn't really be sure. Trump is completely incapable of saying anything that isn't complete bullshit.
Probably my favorite of all of Levinson's films...
Kunga Sagar (4★) · 300 likes
Calling this movie quietly prophetic is one thing, calling it a full on horror disguised as a buddy comedy is another. I’m firmly in the latter category, as I was frankly disturbed by the time I completed this Barry Levinson picture. Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro riffing David Mamet dialogue off of each other is a recipe for an offbeat banger. Hoffman is channeling the late Robert Evans here, while De Niro is trying to be anything but a… more Calling this movie quietly prophetic is one thing, calling it a full on horror disguised as a buddy comedy is another. I’m firmly in the latter category, as I was frankly disturbed by the time I completed this Barry Levinson picture. Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro riffing David Mamet dialogue off of each other is a recipe for an offbeat banger. Hoffman is channeling the late Robert Evans here, while De Niro is trying to be anything but a… more
Will (3.5★) · 257 likes
Dustin Hoffman’s delivery is so perfect. I can’t really think of many other actors who can deliver dialogue like he can. His comedic timing is so effortless and it’s such a joy to watch him perform.