Wag the Dog, by MirO

Helloooo, "1984." As soon as I understood what "Wag the dog" is about, I thought of George Orwell's book. The movie started with the elaborate explanation of the joke about the dog and its tail - if the tail is smart enough, it will wag the dog instead of the other way around. The movie showed how two smart men can manipulate the whole nation. Their power to control all the media is a little far-fetched because such a big scam will have a leak from somewhere; for example - someone form the set where they shot the clip with the Albanian girl.

However, the idea is what important. Mass media is a very powerful tool and the image that the average man has is the key to unite the nation under one cause. History shows that too - Communist propaganda and Hitler's reign in Germany controlled the masses.

De Niro's character, Conrad, impressed me with his methods. First, the whole idea with getting nation's attention away from the sex scandal with a made-up war was brilliant. Even his assistants were asking him about the B-3 bomber - that's how persuasive he was. Second, the talk with the man from the CIA was another great example of rhetoric. Conrad went for the weak spot in CIA's position - he actually blamed them for not being able to find any evidence of terrorism, bombs, or preparations for war.

Another important point made by the movie was the power that Hollywood has. Although mass media reaches everybody in the country every day, Hollywood creates images and stereotypes that also affect the mindset of the people.

Finally, the movie also reminded about a piece of information that reached me in a way or another. During some of the wars, CNN actually artificially shot some of the footages that were supposed to be part of a report on one of the wars in Asia. The source where I read or watched that (I don't remember since it was a long time ago), pointed out that due to the lack of "action" at the war front, CNN made up such action just to have fresh material to show.