nan | 楠木

    I never really enjoy satires. Maybe it has something to do with my sense of humour, but while I find Dr Strangelove amusing, I really don’t find it funny, in the sense that it is listed in the comedy genre. Wag the Dog is another political satire/comedy that I appreciate, but didn’t really laugh during the viewing process. Maybe it’s just me.

    Okay. Talk about a full hollywood cast. Robert De Niro. Dustin Hoffman. Any one of these two guys is enough to carry a film, and they’ve also got Woody Harrelson, William H. Macy? Yeah I know a lot of these renowned actors only have a minor role (cameo really for some, especially James Belushi as himself, hoho), but still a more than impressive cast to start with.

    And the ladies. Anne Heche does a brilliant job in the lead female role, though it’s only a supporting role for the main show, which is De Niro and Hoffman of course. I’m sorry, but I really can’t think of anyone, male or female, who can even try to steal the show from these two leads, so ladies please don’t complain if you feel that this is a male-dominant film and that the actresses play too small a part.

    The plot. Very mocking. It’s time for the election, yet the president is in serious trouble because of a sex scandal on the rise (sound familiar?). De Niro’s character, a Dr. Fix-it, is called to the scene to rescue the president from losing the election. What does he do? "Change the story, change the lead." He decides that the public’s attention must be diverted, and what better way to do that than to launch a war on another unknown country to the general US public?

    So he picks Albania. But please don’t worry because there is no war. It’s just propaganda! So he gets a big shot Hollywood producer (Hoffman) to help him feed the media with tv reels and rigged speeches. The opposing presidential candidate of course does not give up without a fight, but Hoffman and De Niro just keeps the punches coming―― they start a war; the war ends; a soldier is left behind enemy lines; the soldier is rescued…

    Sure all kinds of things go wrong in the process. The soldier(Woody Harrelson) they picked is actually a convicted rapist, and while they are transporting him for the big "welcome home" celebration he manages to get himself killed. Perfect. Now they can arrange a big emotional funeral for the hero who died for his country―― except he died not in Albania, but in a farm, shot by not the enemy but an angry father coming to his daughter’s rescue. But that doesn’t matter, how could the public ever know?

    Sometimes during the viewing of this film I felt the general public’s intelligence was being insulted. I mean, come on, are we that dumb? We can’t even see that there’s no war? But then again there’s one good question we really should ask ourselves―― what do we know, really? What really goes on behind closed doors in the high realms of the government?

    The film may be over exaggerating, but a lot of things it shows could be very true, and that’s what really make you frown and shudder.