War is show business, that's why we're here

Last week, courtesy of Netflix, I got a chance to watch Wag The Dog. According to Netflix, it was a top pick for me, predicting I would love it. Turns out, the prediction was right. This is a spot on, fantastic political satire. I love this movie. Very well acted, particularly great performances by Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The plot kept me interested and it was eerily relevant to my life.

Watching this movie, I felt like it should have been made more recently than it was. Wag The Dog came out in 1997. Yet it features a presidential sex scandal, a fictitious war, the CIA being suspicious (their usual) and this speech below on fighting a war to preserve one's way of life:

           Well, I have, too. Would you do it again...? Isn't that why you're here? I guess so. And if you go to war again, who is it going to be against? Your "ability to fight a Two-ocean War" against who? Sweden and Togo? Who you sitting here to Go To War Against? That time has passed. It's passed. It's over. The war of the future is nuclear terrorism. It is and it will be against a small group of dissidents who, unbeknownst, perhaps, to their own governments, have blah blah blah. And to go to that war, you've got to be prepared. You have to be alert, and the public has to be alert. Cause that is the war of the future, and if you're not gearing up, to fight that war, eventually the axe will fall. And you're gonna be out in the street. And you can call this a "drill," or you can call it "job security," or you can call it anything you like. But I got one for you: you said, "Go to war to protect your Way of Life," well, Chuck, this is your way of life. Isn't it? And if there ain't no war, then you, my friend, can go home and prematurely take up golf. Because there ain't no war but ours!



This feels more like it could have been written in 2003-2004ish times than 1997. I laughed a lot at this movie, but at times the laughter got to the awkward point where it was only funny because the other choice was to cry at how true it has become.


This movie is not perfect. Like many, it doesn't measure up well when considering the Bechdel test (see http://bechdeltest.com/ for more information - unrelated thought, I should consider an entry on this topic) but at least it features an interesting female lead. It is certainly worth watching if you enjoy a good political dark comedy.