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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In three pages this paper presents a cultural critique of this film and its representations of gender, race, class, and what it reveals about contemporary U.S. society. Three sources are listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGblwagdog.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
desired effect. However, in all good satires, there is always an element of truth in the scathing cultural portrayal. In Barry Levinsons 1997 film, Wag the Dog, with
a screenplay written by David Mamet and Hilary Henkin based upon Larry Beinharts novel American Hero, his satire is a cynical mirror of the political times in which it was
made. U.S. President Bill Clinton was facing reelection at a time when he was also embroiled in a politically embarrassing sex scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky (Schultz,
2000). The President in the film is also facing an uphill reelection battle after the details of his scandalous affair with a Firefly girl scout became public. Behind
the scenes, political spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro) and press secretary Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) join forces with Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to repair the Presidents badly
battered image. What better way to restore the Presidents standing with the public than to manufacture a crisis in the form of a war with the little-known (to Americans)
European country of Albania? However, upon further analysis Wag the Dog is much more than a political critique. It also provides an eerily accurate cultural commentary on gender,
class, and race in the United States. In the film, all of the major power brokers in both Washington and Hollywood are white men. The President and the individuals
hired to do damage control are males, while the highest-ranking female - the press secretary - does little more than what the other men tell her to do. Females
are depicted as little more than sex objects whose only purposes are to serve their male counterparts. The men bond and enjoy professional and personal camaraderie whereas the women
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