Wag the Dog - 2nd Draft

Genre: Black Comedy / Satire / David Mamet

Premise: A few weeks from Presidential elections, the President is caught in a closet with a girl scout. When the opposite party starts using this issue as a way to lessen the President's support, a spin doctor is hired to fake a hyper realistic war with Albania which includes television footage.

About: Beinart wrote "American Hero" after wondering if the Persian Gulf War had been fought largely to shore up President Bush's sagging presidency, and makes it unabashedly obvious in the novel that George HW Bush is the president and the war is The Gulf War. Mamet took the theme of the book -- a president using a war to divert public attention from a scandal -- but created his own dark scenario peopled with the disillusioned characters he usually embraces.

Writers: Based on "American Hero, a novel, by Larry Beinhart (who doesn't have that many novels, at least nothing I've ever heard of). Hilary Henkin (who co-wrote Roadhouse w/ Patrick Swayze, that's right apparently they needed a co-writer for that piece of crap) wrote the first draft, which was subsequently rewritten, polished, fixed and revised by David Mamet (Glengary Glen Ross, American Buffalo, The Untouchables). Henkin's name was originally left off the finished film, so she took the issue to the Writer's Guild. Barry Levinson (the director of Wag the Dog) claimed her influence had been minimal which is why she wasn't acknowledged. But Henkin got her name on the script anyway.

There are a few things, which will unavoidably alter the perspective through which I view this film: I read a second draft and I haven't seen the finished product, the dialogue is very blatantly Mamet inspired, and I was only four when the incidents in this novel came about so I don't remember them with very much accuracy. And, for the record, I'm not a huge Dr. Strangelove fan, and that film is nearly the archetype of Wag the Dog. But that being said, this is a very solid film. It's not brilliant, but I'd say it's pretty good and as far as Mamet goes, entertaining.

The characters speak in the reflect, dialogue driven Mamet-style mining each word and exploring multiple uses. It's a little bit more grounded than the other Mamet stuff (I studied Oleanna alot this summer and there aren't any weird passages here about what "What?" means). But, the thing is this is very dark in dialogue tone. And it's very believable, which is an an almost unsettingly combination. Ultimately, I found the whole thing humorous because we're in on the joke/cover-up from the ground floor. The best part is the filming of a bogus Albanian battle scene and recording of a "We are the World" sort of song. I love that. It's almost too funny for Strangelove, and reminds me more of Sullivan's Travels.

Now, it's not a bad film. But inevitably, like alot of these media scripts, the story is pretty slow moving and ultimately it boils down to nothing more than a couple of actions and a court scene. In this one, I love the build up and I just wish the film had spent more time on how all this stuff was specifically done and to what effect. Also, the film becomes nothing more than an intellectual challenge. I mean, sure there are fun parts and laughs, but inevitably alot like Dr. Strangelove this whole thing rides on watching a bunch of higher up Presidential people, and I always have a hard time relating to these types of characters because they're so removed from my world. But besides a slow pace and characters I had a hard time getting behind, this script sets itself up well in terms of dialogue, action and humor.

Also, the whole thing ends remarkably flat. I almost thought I'd missed something, but I hadn't. It doesnt really try to make a point with the satire or show any sort of a causal relation. Just that television can destroy the electoral process, which brings us to the whole theme of the week...

The media in this is very much also in the note of The Truman Show. Let's note for a moment that Network (mid 70's) feared media, Quiz Show mourned the loss of intelligent media, and The Truman Show/Serial Mom/Wag The Dog, which all came out within a five year period of one another in late 90's, all suggest that media spins stories and images into ways which corrupt the viewers sense of what is real. Now that's interesting because there's a lot more films from this period that do exactly the same thing (Natural Born Killers, Reality Bites, Canadian Bacon, ED TV...) What was it in the last five years of the 90's that caused to have such an uproar of films assaulting the truthfulness of the media? Clinton? OJ? George HW? Who knows, but they seem to have all but subsided by the time Y2K rolled around. Wag the Dog is paricularly inventive in showing just how far the media goes to lie, and how exploitative that can be (it's much less focused on how these untruths affect us, but that's not it's intention.) Wag the Dog is fairly decently, albeit the darkest of the media scripts I've read this week by far.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: There really aren't any strong female roles here so no, no Isla stuff.

What I Learned: The spin doctor is allegedly very influenced around legendary producer Robert Evans (Chinatown, Love Story). It's kind of enjoyable and memorable when writers make archetypes from historical figures. It's also pretty easy to come up with original dialogue, descriptions and actions for a character when you're basing them around somebody you're vaguely aware of. The Coen brothers do this alot. William Faulkner among others in Barton Fink, and Robert Johnson in Oh Brother Where Art Thou? I've always liked this and it seems like a good way to make a second tier character come off as fascinating.

Script Link: This is all over Google.