“Forgotten Hollywood”- Wag the Dog…
Manny P. here… 
“`A spin doctor and a Hollywood producer fabricate a war to distract citizens from a presidential sex scandal. Something from the pages of today’s headlines? Actually, I reference a 1997 production that starred Dustin Hoffman, Willie Nelson, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Kirsten Dunst and Woody Harrelson.
“`Directed by Barry Levinson, and nominated for two Oscars, Wag the Dog chronicles the directive of a fictional conflict in Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this, instead of an Oval Office transgression involving an unnamed President and an underage girl. This artificial hostility, complete with a patriotic country theme song and fake footage, is designed to rally the vox populi. The contrived hoax is initially successful, with the President quickly gaining ground in the polls.
“`Critic Roger Ebert would offer this analysis:
The work is a satire that contains just enough realistic ballast to be teasingly plausible; like Dr. Strangelove, it makes you laugh, and then it makes you wonder.
“`Levinson’s movie is at the forefront of our political discourse. Pundits have drawn a number of comparisons between the movie’s plot and recent strikes on Syria airfields as a distraction from ongoing reports of a stormy tryst involving an adult film star, and alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign and election.
“`When cinema and modern history intersect, the Hollywood-and-Vine metaphoric referral is quite appropriate.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 14th, 2018 at 12:19 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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