Dear reader,
especially with the crises and wars of the past
months in several regions, we should, in my opinion, be more
sceptical about the reports we believe and think how much and what to
believe. Granted, the movie “Wag the Dog” from the year 1997 with
Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman is satire and meant for
entertainment. Maybe there's still a bit of truth in there also and
could as well change your view of reporting and make you see it in a
new light.
Imagine if you will that you're in America and it's
shortly before a presidential election. Of course the current
president wants to be president again. But suddenly he gets accused
of having sexually harassed an under-age student. How could one lead
the people away from this scandal? Conrad Brean (played by Robert de
Niro) has an idea: a story, which leads to even more talking than a
sex scandal would, which is a war. A war against which country
though? Well, how much do you know about Albania? Probably as much as
I do: which is nothing. So why not use this lack of knowledge and
spread the rumour that America is at war against Albania. In a
studio, with the help of Stanley Motss (played by Dustin Hoffman)
some staged eyes witness reports are produced and get spread and the
conflict with Albania is out on the news.
The CIA hears that the conflict is faked, and they go
and have a serious talk with Brean, but he manages to talk himself
out of it and save his own neck. Sadly, shortly after that news
breaks out that the Albania conflict is solved. Brean and Motss
however are enjoying their fiction so much and want to get the upper
hand again. So they quickly invent a story about a lone soldier,
who's still back in Albania and needs rescuing. His name is William
Schumann, nicknamed “Old Shoe”. The story is supposed to be
ending innocuously and sympathetically with the rescue of Schumann
and return to America only days before the presidential election. Up
until that point the movie is funny, entertaining and has moments of
dark humour. It gets really exciting however when we learn that the
actor, who is supposed to play Schumann, is in fact a high-risk
offender. He gets flown in with a plane, to celebrate Schumann's
triumphant arrival, but the plane crashes. Brean, Motss and the
criminal survive the crash, but the psychotropic drugs that are
supposed to keep him in check are slowly but surely wearing off.
How will the story of William Schumann end? You've
got to watch it for yourself. By the way: it may be hard to believe
with all the many similarities, but the movie was all finished when
the ”Lewinsky scandal“ hit the news.
Until next blog,
sarah
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