Motion Pictures: Politics and History

Life Imitating Art?

Movies of the 1990s expressed Americans' cynicism about politicians and the political process. In Wag the Dog, released in late 1997, presidential advisers create a nonexistent international crisis to divert attention from a breaking story that accuses the president of fondling a young girl. The president's advisers and aides, experts at letting the tail wag the dog, hire a Hollywood producer to give the illusory incident a sense of reality. With his help they create footage of bombed-out villages and manufacture a true-blue American "hero" for public consumption. The following year, during revelations about President William J. Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, pundits frequently accused the president of trying to "wag the dog" to divert attention from the scandal—particularly in December 1998, when he ordered the bombing of Baghdad just as the House of Representatives began debate on...

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