Movie Information

Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro about a Washington spin doctor who, merely days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer to construct a fake war with Albania. The scheme enlists the aid of a country music singer, who creates several theme songs for the war; a "fad king"; and a costume designer, who helps create a fictional special forces unit to fight the war's supposed battles.

Wag the Dog was produced and directed by Barry Levinson. The screenplay was credited to Hilary Henkin and David Mamet. The film is based on the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart; however, the film differs greatly from the book. In the book, the president is specifically George H. W. Bush (in the movie he is unnamed), the fake war operation is explicitly Desert Storm, and the war actually occurs, instead of being entirely falsified

Movie Plot

When an unnamed President of the United States is caught in a closed room with a young girl scout less than two weeks before re-election, a hired political gun (played by Robert DeNiro) is brought in to try to take the public attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a fake war with Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead. In order to come up with his 'war', he contacts a Hollywood producer named Stanley Motss (Hoffman), who brings in a series of specialists who help construct a theme song, build up interest, and fake some footage of an orphan in Albania.

The plan's continual setbacks (including having to use an Army prison convict to be their 'hero' who was "shot down behind enemy lines") don't disturb the producer, who continues to declare "This is nothing" while comparing the situation to a past movie-making catastrophe he averted. In the end, with the election done and the President re-elected, everything seems fine - until the producer finds out from the news outlets that the media are crediting the President's tired "Don't change horses in mid stream" campaign slogan with his win, rather than his elaborate plans. The producer is about to call the media to 'set them straight', when the President's aide warns him that he is "toying with his life" and, eventually, has him killed and makes it look like he had a heart-attack while tanning next to his pool.