Patrick Stoner welcomes your questions about movies and the people who make them. Send your questions to pstoner@whyy.org. Here's the current question and answer:
Q: WAG THE DOG became a familiar name among news junkies in recent weeks because its plot line seems to coincide with the Clinton flap. What do the stars make of that irony? A: Ask Dustin. Better yet, I asked him. I was interviewing Dustin Hoffman for the upcoming movie, SPHERE, and just touched on the Clinton investigation controversies at the end. He is never at a loss for words, and his comments are transcribed below.
First, however, for those of you who have been visiting Tibet during the last month and don't get the irony, let me explain: WAG THE DOG is a wonderful satire about a behind-the-scenes political operative (Robert De Niro) who recruits a Hollywood producer (Hoffman) to create a media blitz touting a fake war, in order to divert attention from a presidential sex scandal. In the process, the gullibility of the press and the cynicism of the polilticos are satirized in a biting, but hilarious manner through David Mamet's script.
The ironies, of course, include the sexual escapades of the president, the feeding frenzy of the easily duped media, and the potential for even war to be used for political ends. In other words, it's not the important, truthful things that control the world. It's the petty, dishonest things. Or, to explain the title, it's not the dog that wags the tail, it's..., well, you know.
SO, here's what Dustin had to say about the subject a few days ago:
HOFFMAN: Nobody's talking about WAG THE DOG from the character's point of view. I mean, to me, it's of secondary interest if Clinton's guilty, innocent, did he, did he not -- I don't care. I look at it from a whole other point of view, which is, he's a man, he's got testosterone, he's sexually active, he's 50 years old.
It's not my business what his relationship with his wife is, but let's say, hypothetically, that there is some kind of understanding. If so, then what ARE we asking our president to do? I mean, he's been reelected, so he's got eight years in that office. Are we saying, "Don't you dare have sex"? And if not in the White House, which is his home, then where? Does he say, "Well, I think I'm going to go out for a drive"? "I think I'll go to the bar." [laughs] I mean, what are we asking? And, in fact, according to the polls, we aren't, which is kind of wonderful in that the American public recognizes that. They're saying, "Do your job. Your life is your life. You work that out with your family and your God."
What WAG THE DOG and my earlier film [MAD CITY], which nobody seems to have noticed in this same context, showed is that it's easy to send the media chasing its own tail. AND, the reason for that is that WE, the public, are very hypocritical about what we SAY we want the media to cover and what we really watch. THAT's the scandal, and it's OUR scandal.
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