Write about a favourite scene in the movie. Post your response here as a comment. (Maximum 250 words; minimum 150 words) Make a critical comment, modeling your answer on Ebert's writing. Be specific in your description and be clear on whether you think the scene was (or was not) effective. What were the filmmakers trying to say in the scene?
Script (by David Mamet) for the film, Wag the Dog.
Script (by David Mamet) for the film, Wag the Dog.
Bring your writing to class, word processed, next Wednesday.
Also, please view this video of the "wag the dog" technique being used on the public in 1990 (first Gulf War).
Congress Testimony of Nayirah (Read the description below the video before you watch.) Note your reaction to this information and bring to class, but do not post it at the blog)
Thesis topics from both classes
Sample 725-Word Essay for Persuasive Essay assignment
Thesis topics from both classes
Sample 725-Word Essay for Persuasive Essay assignment
13 comments:
“Of course there’s a war. I’m watching it on television,” Conrad Brean asserts to the CIA man who has just told him that there is no war, based on spy satellite reports, the Canadian government (!) and the Albanians. Thus begins one of my favourite scenes in the film, Wag the Dog.
William H. Macey’s character, CIA Agent Charles Young, is adamant about what the spy satellites show, which doesn’t faze Brean in the least. In fact, he challenges the agent to a verbal duel about his (and Brean’s) true work for the government.
Beginning with “If there’s no threat, then what good are you?” Brean goes on to say that “The war of the future is nuclear terrorism.” He argues forcefully that, to protect the American way of life, a war (or enemy) is a necessity. Whether it is a truthful enemy matters less or not at all.
The film predicts the future of American government policy while, at the same time, making a satirical and essential point. To do so, the writers needed only look at the historical record. To my mind, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best, warning Americans in his farewell speech in 1961 of a “military-industrial complex” and that “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
The 2010 U.S. military budget took up 20% of American’s GDP and represents 40% of world defense spending! I think, alas, that Brean has a point.
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“The officer consults his clipboard. Camera pans show the Van Reads “Military Special Prisons.” As Ames slowly reads and starts to panic, I thought it was really funny to see Brean, Ames and Moss’s reaction while they were sitting on the plane trying to figure out what to do, it happened to be one of my favorite scenes .
Brean and Moss get into an altercation because of how Moss wanted to change the deal, He wanted to take the credit for something he created but got back fired by it because it didn’t end up turning out to be the way he pictured it. Lies can only take you so far until there is absolutely no credit for it. It ended up effecting Moss because his plans didn’t go through.
The film makers were trying to make a point on how the American government has a huge impact on our lives. So the only way to catch the citizens attention would be to warn everyone even if they were to make a lie about It, would be one of the smartest ways to show the Americans that the government and the military are always on a serious act to help protect society. Even with everything going on Brean, Ames and Moss were able to create a distraction that would help lead citizens in believing that all the scenes that they were plotting, impacts everyone in the end if they didn’t help make their own choices.
The movie “wag the dog” is a political movie. It expresses some of the techniques being used by the government to change people’s perspective towards something or someone by spreading out propaganda and false media. My favorite scene was the making of propaganda, the young Albanian girl running away from enemies and rapists holding a cat. That scene was made in order to make people think, Albanians need United States of America’s help; while the purpose was totally different. The scene was effective and was made to divert people’s attention from president’s sex scandal. Some people felt bad for the people living in severe situations in Albania. The film makers are trying to show us, how politics work and how they can change people’s point of view by spreading out lies and false media. From summation of the movie and the classmate’s perspective, the movie was made to show, the reality can be similar to what we’ve watched in the movie. In conclusion, politics can spread out propagandas that has never existed, in order to change people’s perspective
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My favorite scene was when they filmed the fake news footage of a helpless Albania girl, Kirsten Dunst, an America actress. The production set was large and empty, but after the special effects, it looked very realistic as if the girl and her cat were in grave danger. Even her black cat turned white! “In the Breanian universe, the tail is smarter and we are invited to be the dog.” I admire Brean who created some propaganda to distract the press from the “Firefly Girl” scandal and successfully masterminded this series of events. He is intelligent, for he knows how to control the thoughts of people and gain what he wants by cooking up “a phony international crisis with Albania.”
If it’s just in a drama, not for covering up the truth to win an election, I would be quite fond of this propaganda film and its scripts, but this shows us how easily the politicians can manipulate the media if they needed to. They can create fake news just to sway the voters before the election. Thus, I feel that the masses are blind.
I remember that something similar happened in my country several years ago. A candidate wanted to run for mayor, but he was discredited due to a scandal only days before the election. He lost that election, but eventually he regained his reputation. The media is sometimes filled with lies, so we need to open our eyes and judge what is true for ourselves.
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Acting on the stage with an innocent girl used in an act to help them spread the news about the "war" in Albania was my favourite scene, because it points out we can do anything with technology. Every year new technologies are made and better improved. In my favourite scene during the act on the stage president asks the producer to change some stuff to make it more effective and believable. The president helped the producer and the other people to make this happen in order to make everyone forget about what he did and focus on what's happening (the fake suitcase bomb made by Albanians). The scene was really effective and changed our view on how we see society today, because now we learn not to trust everything said by anyone without prove. The filmmakers were trying to prove that something fake can be seen so real so be careful with what you hear and believe.
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“The war ain't over til I say it's over.” Stanley Motss insists that they must have “Act two” to keep the story continuing while Brean and Ames both declare defeat. It begins my favorite scene of the film, “Wag the Dog”.
Motss’s falsification of a "war hero” who suddenly turns out to be psychopathic rapists prison makes the film become more complicated and interesting. It is funny that the song “Old Shoe” matches the soldier’s name William Schumann (Woody Harrelson), like an abandoned old shoe was left behind the enemy lines. The combination of the hero and the song is so emotionally touching our heart, even the youth try to show their “patriotism”, so that the scandal of the president is almost forgotten.
In order to win in the election, politicians pile up lies upon lies to deceive the public and cover their ugly “appearance” to improve the their images. I think Barry Levinson conveys a message to the public, that we should be aware of the propaganda of government while placing our trust unquestionably on the media.
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The influence of mass media on our life and our conscious was the subject of wide speculation time and again. Nowadays a lot of technical innovations and modern equipments even allow to start and end the wars.
My favorite and the most pointed moment in the movie “Wag the dog”, that demonstrates mass media’s power, is the dialog between Brean and Moss about ending of Albanian war.
BREAN: The War is over. Senator Nole just ended the War… Well, we started it, he ended it...
MOSS: The War ain't over
BREAN: I saw it on TV.
MOSS: The war ain't over till I say it's over. This is my picture… This is... this is... this is just...Act One: THE WAR.
While I was watching this moment I remembered the photos of factories “producing the nuclear weapons” in Iraq and reports about Chechen war and many other fakes created for politic profit. They were made so skillfully and plausibly that no one doubts. It is a pity that talented and creative persons are at the service of unscrupulous politicians. I almost liked Moss who had produced “the War” like an expert. However, his fate is predictable and sad and could serve as a lesson to the corrupt journalists.
Mass media are often called the fourth branch of power. It creates the climate in society together with the legislature, executive and adjudicative power. So the professionals, who worked in mass media, should have the personal responsibilities about information they provide, in our turn we should be “smarter than the tail” to not allowed to manipulate us.
264 words
The movie “Wag the Dog” shows us that media has power to control people, and sometimes it’s used as political tools for hiding scandal or earning the support by government.
My favorite scene is that Stanley Motss, a film producer suddenly denies that his ‘master piece’ have to be a secret, and it must be buried underneath. He wants get ‘credit’ for his work. He never knows that how dangerous his imprudent behavior, also he even may not have considered what he did. Finally, his desire for fame and foolish pride destroyed his life. He is considered to be a hindrance, so he is punished by Brean. He became a victim of governmental force as well.
At the beginning of the movie, Brean asks, “Why does dog wag its tail?”, and answers, “Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail was smarter, it would wag the dog.” It seems a metaphor. Why mass media controls and stirs up people? If the people was smarter, they would make a shift of power.
Korean government still takes control mass media. The government does monitoring them, and exercising power over internet major portal sites, too. It is unbelievable, but it’s true. On the surface, Korea looks like a free democracy, but there’s no freedom of the press. Some citizen who knows this fact never trust political news. It’s very sorrowful reality for me.
While watching this movie, I related a lot of the story. I was a powerless citizen, so I know, it precisely happen anywhere. “To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.” (-Stanislaw Leszczynski)
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In the movie “Wag A Dog” it’s not an accident that old shoes have been chosen as a symbol of patriotism. Because this word is so often miss-used in the media, the real meaning of patriotism is worn-out and cliché. Metaphorically, patriotism is becoming an old shoe which we can throw in the garbage or in the movie’s case, a basketball game. Throughout his article, Ebert has been strongly leading us to the conclusion that we cannot afford luxury to be misled, “the tail is smarter, and we, dear readers, are invited to be the dogs.” The question is, are we going to accept the invitation? I hope not.
The media is very powerful in terrorism of choice, giving us only the choice which they want to be chosen for our actions and thoughts. I saw just how powerful that can be during war time in Bosnia. Even now, 20 years after the war ended, the media is still manipulating with the truth. The truth is so painful: around 100.000 people were killed, 50.000 women were raped, and over 2.2 million people were displaced. We need to open our eyes; otherwise we are going to close it in pain, for which you cannot cry out. This is pain that only God can heal. We all have the responsibility to think of accepting or not the information that the media is serving. Even if terrorism of choice is our reality, we still have the chance to let a Dog Wag a Tail.
-251 words
"was the Dog",. They took advance of a young blonde girl, to be a role player in a short clip film, an event in a war at a country named ,Albania. Thus, this is my favorite scenes of the movie.
Apparently, they were trying to get people's and government's attention into an unstable situation in some other places around the world, to unfocused people and government about today's situation, Elections. Therefore, I was witness of some other techniques they were using to wag the dog, or get people's attention, like trowing shoes above the trees and electronic wires.
After produce of that short clip film was done, they showed it to people, so than people believe on a war in Albania. some how They succeed, a variety of people believed on that lie, even though there was no war in Albania at all.
The reason that they did that was because, they wanted to have more power on the government so it pays attention to something else than elections and voting ,which were going to happen in 11 days.
This movie based on a political subject matter. however, we had similar problems before, as well as today . There are some people that make medias, speeches and conferences, to change people's mind and perspectives over the situations and guide them toward false information.Moreover, at the end of the film, their lie, to unfocused the people, became obvious and they got caught by a group, named CIA.
“We aren’t going to have a war .We are going to have “appearance” of a war.” Conrad Brean imaged the plan with Winifred Ames to save the president in the sex scandal situation before the election. Winifred Ames asked, “How?” “We are going to need a producer.” Thus begins one of my favorite scenes in the film, Wag the Dog.
Bread played by Robert De Nirro whose role is a president’s brilliant spin –doctor. In this scene, he was explained briefly plan to his co-worker : Ames who played by Anne Heches. His plan was they were going to create a fake war between the government and unknown country like Albania to avoid the public’s attention. Ames wasn’t sure to give wrong information to the innocent people but she trusted his professional and experiences so she agreed with him. Now on,they were going to the Hollywood to make it real! It’s getting more interesting…
The film makers show us how our society has been impacted by media .They presented well by the perfect comedic casts to manipulate our politics in the movie. It’s an enjoyable and knowledgeable in my view. To relate in this movie, the government in Thailand controls the media. As instinctive citizen, we always open our eyes to receive the news.
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Finding my favorite scene from “Wag the Dog” isn’t an easy choice just because I enjoyed the entire movie. I enjoyed all of the effort put into “the plan” to deal with all of the issues with the current president. I didn’t enjoy how they were deceiving the people but I did enjoy the writing behind the movie because it is very much a reality. My favorite scene was when they had already gone so far into the cover up and then the thought it had ended; this is when they came up with act 2. I really enjoyed this part mostly because it was what stuck out in my mind the most and was absolutely the most memorable. I enjoyed watching how well their plan actually did work and play out. I enjoyed it because it was so strategically thought out. Everything fell into place so well. The movie really points out the reality of the manipulation that is happening to people and on top of that there is next to no way these people would know what is going on. It really shows that when they are filming the actress running with a bag of Tostitos in a green room. They later show the editors using computer graphics to add in the background or Albania and change the bag of Tostitos to a white cat. This manipulation was all easily done. Overall, I really did enjoy this movie and I think it was very well written.
248Words
My favorite movie scene was when they brought William Schumann inside the plane and they didn't know that he was crazy and the he was serving time in military prison. This put them in a lot of trouble because they didn't have enough medicine to give him. It got more interesting when the plane crashed and while they were waiting for a car to pick them up William attacked the farmer's daughter and the farmer shoot him and he died. They didn't know what to do until the film producer came up with a plan and it was to take him back home in a coffin. When they got back everyone was unhappy, but in the other hand the people who made all this up were happy that the job was done and that they saved the president so he can have more votes then the other people who were trying to be the next president.
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