The 1998 movie about abstraction, distraction, media manipulation, and substituting your own reality.
With two days to go until election day in America, today seemed like a good day to rewatch Wag the Dog
. Campaign season is always full of distractions, mudslinging, and plenty of noise. By the time voting day comes along, many of us are so dragged out, so tired, so drained that we either vote halfheartedly or don’t vote at all.
And that’s the whole point.
The story: With eleven days to go before the presidential election, the current president is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor girl. The spin doctors go into damage-control mode, hiring a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to produce “a pageant”: a war with Albania, the B-3 bomber, a hero left behind. They use the newspapers, television, radio, any and all mass media to plant and spread their rumors. They have slogans, songs, merchandizing, the works. And they use every tool they have to redefine reality.
Ignore the propaganda. Focus on what you see.
And (if you’re a registered US voter) vote on Tuesday.
Keywords: | thought control | political satire | movies | marketing | black comedy |
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