Wag the Dog

Unclear and Present Danger

Jamelle Bouie

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 660 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wag the Dog tells the story of a scandal-ridden president whose chief spin doctor, Conrad Brean (De Niro), decides to distract the public with a fictional war with Albania. To pull this off, he hires Stanley Motss (Hoffman), a prominent Hollywood producer who throws himself into orchestrating an imaginary war, complete with fake footage, fake war heroes and a popular theme song. The hoax is successful, but it soon comes with a host of complications which require Brean and Motss to take quick action to further deceive the public.

In their conversation, Jamelle and John discuss the cynicism, shallowness and laziness of Levinson and Mamet’s depiction of Washington politics, as well as a few real-life examples of manufactured wars, and why most Hollywood political satire just doesn’t work.

The tagline for Wag the Dog was “A comedy about truth, justice and other special effects.”

You can find Wag the Dog to rent or buy on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

Episodes come out every two weeks so stay-tuned for our upcoming episode on Murder at 1600.

And don’t forget our Patreon, where we cover the political thrillers of the Cold War and we offer weekly political commentary. You can subscribe for just $5 at patreon.com/unclearpod.

Our producer is Connor Lynch and our artwork is by Rachel Eck.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a crisis in the White House.
0:02.0	What's the crisis?
0:03.0	And the President's top advisors have been called together.
0:07.0	Oh, geez.
0:08.0	The sexual misconduct occurred inside the Oval Office, with the election only days away.
0:14.0	How much will this scandal affect the outcome?
0:16.0	The President spent the weekend pressing the flash.
0:19.0	He wasn't campaigning. He was dating. Now, Washington's top spin doctor. We can distract the press for 11 days till the election. I think we've got a chance. Has an idea. We can't afford a war. We're going to have the appearance of a war. But he can't pull it off without Hollywood's top producer. Do I know you? We have some mutual friends in Washington. Why come to me? We want you to produce. You want me to produce your war? Not a war. It's a pageant. We need a theme, a song, some visuals. We need, you know, it's a pageant. New Line Cinema Presents. How close are you to this? What do you want the kid to say? All the spectacle. I know we're all concerned for the president. I know we're all concerned for the president. I know that we are all concerned for the president. He didn't sell the line. All the drama. The president's going to go to war with Albania in about 30 minutes. Albania is hard to ride. These are chips. We need it for the armed position on the street. It'll be a kitten. We'll punch it in later, right? And all the effects of real war. Okay, put the village behind her. Give me some sound of screaming. Without the casualties. America has seldom witnessed a more poignant picture. They're the same process with the last Schwarzenegger movie.
1:28.3	You're the man.
1:29.3	Alvangelo, Alvangue.
1:31.3	That rhymes.
1:33.3	I can't believe that.
1:34.3	We forgot a hero.
1:35.3	It was like we sent him to Christmas card, and we left out the what do you call?
1:38.3	Fruitcake. There you go.
1:39.3	Sergeant.
1:40.3	Schumann, if I may, welcome to history.
1:42.3	How are you?
1:43.3	Anybody want a beer? Shuman, if I may, welcome to history. How are you?
1:47.9	Anybody want a beer, because I could party.
1:50.5	When it's cooking, it's cooking.
1:53.9	From Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson.
	...

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