Wag the Dog (1997)

	Directed by: Barry Levinson	COUNTRY USA GENRE Comedy/Political satire NORWEGIAN TITLE Wag the Dog – når halen logrer med hunden RUNNING TIME 97 minutes
	Produced by: Jane Rosenthal Robert De Niro Barry Levinson
	Written by: Hilary Henkin David Mamet

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Stanley Motss	Dustin Hoffman	½
Conrad Brean	Robert De Niro	½
Winifred Ames	Anne Heche
Fad King	Denis Leary	-
Johnny Green	Willie Nelson	-
Liz Butsky	Andrea Martin	-
Tracy Lime	Kirsten Dunst	-
Mr. Young	William H. Macy	-
Senator Neal	Craig T. Nelson	-
Sgt. William Schumann	Woody Harrelson

Review

Political satire is hardly abundant in cinema, and certainly not in Hollywood. In general, politics has been kept somewhat at arm’s length in films since the politically charged 1970s. With that backdrop, Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog is an enjoyable experience – a loose and inventive satirical affair that works better for its sharp-edged commentary than as a story.

At the center of this media-manipulation circus are two Hollywood legends: Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. Despite both being defining stars of the '70s (and reliable Oscar magnets), they’d barely shared screen time until Levinson brought them together for Sleepers in 1996 – and even then, only briefly. Here, they’re front and center, playing off each other with practiced ease and anchoring much of the film’s appeal. Hoffman steals most of the spotlight, delivering a performance built entirely around a very '90s cinematic trope: coolness. Nearly every line he delivers gets its punch not from depth or emotion, but from stylized swagger. His character is quirky rather than complex, but often hilarious in the way only a self-important Hollywood producer can be. De Niro, by contrast, operates in a much more subdued register. Like much of his '90s output, his performance leans heavily on sheer technique. He’s watchable, certainly, but there's a sense of him running at half-power – his charisma dialed down, his engagement a little muted. Still, when he and Hoffman share the screen, something clicks. Their rhythm works.

The film is structured almost entirely around a central idea rather than a fully developed story. And that idea – the sheer scale to which public perception can be manipulated by media spin – is explored with often sharp, occasionally inspired comic precision. A handful of scenes still stand out as minor gems: a brainstorm session with Willie Nelson as the campaign’s official jingle-writer, or the absurd debate about the colour of the kitten in a fabricated war photo. It’s satire that understands the absurdity of both politics and showbiz, and how the two are increasingly indistinguishable.

But as sharp as the concept is, Wag the Dog eventually starts to feel like a sketch stretched to feature length. It presents its core idea over and over, in different variations, but doesn’t develop a narrative that can truly carry it. Characters are rarely more than vehicles for commentary. The story doesn’t build – it circles. You’re left admiring individual scenes, moments, and lines, but rarely feeling pulled in.

That’s a structural issue – and the blame lands partly with Levinson, and partly with screenwriters Henkin and Mamet. What they had was a brilliant conceit, but not a script that knew how to sustain it. Without a dramatic engine to keep things moving, the film inevitably sags in places. It doesn’t collapse, but it coasts. And when a movie reduces the viewer to an observer rather than a participant, it needs to keep throwing out fresh insights or surprises to hold your attention. Wag the Dog does this – until it doesn’t. For all its potential, the film ultimately falls into a similar trap as Sleepers: big ideas, top-tier cast, flashes of brilliance – but a structure that underdelivers.