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Rewatched Wag the Dog (1997)
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:10 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine I rewatched Wag the Dog (1997) after having seen it more than twenty years ago. I remembered just the broad strokes of it involving creating a distraction away from a president’s sex scandal. Someone in one of my prior movie posts recommended it as a dissident film; I was skeptical of this given the liberal cast involved (Robert de Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Willie Nelson, William H. Macy etc. and Anne Heche, who would later go on to die in a strange way by getting in a car accident and bursting out of a body bag on camera) but I gave it a re-watch anyway. I saw on the Wiki page that the movie came out before the Lewinski scandal and Clinton’s subsequent bombings in the Middle East, which made it prescient from the start.
It’s an amazing film, a true dissident film, but not in the way most people saw it. The way most people saw it was that narratives can be created to distract or manipulate the public for hidden purposes. Fair enough and cynical, true. But the deeper message is that narratives can be created out of nothing, with no pushback from anyone else other than other elites like spooks. Government works with Hollywood to craft the best and most memorable narratives, which reminds me of the rumor that Kubrick directed the moon landings. It is cynical ultimately not about narrative creation but how people unquestioningly believe what they are told. It is extremely pessimistic from that respect - not against government, but against human nature and the gullibility of plebs. Megan Garber’s look back at the film in 2016 for The Atlantic was correct, where she wrote: “It’s a common trope in films and shows about politics: the one person, standing up to the Hollywood-produced machinery of Washington. The individual, fighting for authenticity in a political culture that wants nothing more than to be fake. What Wag the Dog suggests, though, is something both gentler and infinitely more cynical: Here, there is no one to push back. Here, there is no one to stand up for authenticity or truth or the empowerment of the individual. Here, it’s all a production; we citizens double as audiences. And the thing of it is that, in the movie’s dark vision, there is no difference between the two.”
The film also foreshadowed what we are experiencing today: the “post-truth world” where it has become unclear how one can tell fact from fiction given the loss of credibility of official institutions and experts. This is why it is so important to have a grounding mechanism to test narratives against reality, as well as to step back from day-to-day media narratives because even to hear them is to imprint their framing in your mind. Your attention is the product.
The script by David Mamet sparkles; it’s based on a novel but apparently it didn’t have too much to do with it. Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross also featured amazing dialogue. I’m going to have to watch more of his works.
9.5/10. |
Date: October 25th, 2024 12:15 PM Author: contagious principal's office kitty cat I agree with your reading. It's devastatingly cynical. And quite brilliant. The apparat can manufacture a "reality" entirely out of nothing. This is the reading I had in mind when I made this thread (that didn't get much love even though I bumped it a ton of times): http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4767951&mc=28&forum_id=2 |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:17 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239192) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:54 PM Author: thriller gold market depressive (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239382) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:19 PM Author: contagious principal's office kitty cat btw, I think literally everything touched by Mamet is worth watching (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239200) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:22 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine ty, what are your favorites? I've only seen this and Glengarry
Have you read any of his books? |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:28 PM Author: contagious principal's office kitty cat I've read American Buffalo (a play) and seen the screen adaptation - it's great. Apart from Glengarry (one of my favorite movies) I especially liked Spanish Prisoner, House Of Games (obscure, sadly), State & Main, The Verdict (with Paul Newman). You might also have seen The Untouchables, Heist, and Ronin without knowing they are Mamet screenplays. |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:30 PM Author: Abusive turdskin Speed the Plow is another excellent play of his. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239258) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:31 PM Author: contagious principal's office kitty cat I never read it. Will download now. TY. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239268) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:31 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine ty, this is helpful, I'm going to delve into these (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239264) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:22 PM Author: Judgmental insanely creepy theatre Didn't realize Mamet wrote the script. I remember it being thought of as cheesy and not as thought-provoking as your review and the Atlantic describe it. Sounds like it's worth a watch. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239218) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:28 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine Interested in your take if you do watch it... (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239240) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:29 PM Author: Dark Boyish Jew Consuela going 10 minutes without describing something as "dissident" challenge (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239248) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 12:30 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine my movie reviews are being approached from that frame so of course it would be mentioned early (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239261) |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 1:40 PM Author: contagious principal's office kitty cat read this too (epub and pdf downloads in link) https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/david-mamet/pdf-epub-the-secret-knowledge-on-the-dismantling-of-american-culture-download-58115811953/ |
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Date: October 25th, 2024 2:26 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48239856) |
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Date: October 26th, 2024 2:14 PM Author: out-of-control theater dopamine (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#48243333) |
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Date: January 3rd, 2026 12:44 PM Author: Slimy location (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#49559002) |
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Date: January 3rd, 2026 12:51 PM Author: Impertinent cheese-eating box office Cute entertaining movie. In reality, however, things are run by fully demon-possessed child-sacrificing pedophiles directly commanded by Satan. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#49559044) |
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Date: January 3rd, 2026 12:54 PM Author: Shimmering native I saw Wag the Dog in the theater, but I had my hand down my high school girlfriend's pants for the first time, and don't remember a thing about it. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5617962&forum_id=2/#49559063) |