Satire Verite
Wag the Dog, Primary Colors and Bullworth
Jennifer Parker
July 1, 1998
Wag the Dog directed by Barry Levinson (New Line Cinema, 1997), 97 minutes.
Primary Colors directed by Mike Nichols (Universal Pictures, 1998), 140 minutes.
Bulworth directed by Warren Beatty (20th Century Fox, 1998), 95 minutes.
Long after Vince Foster, Whitewater, and Monica Lewinsky have faded from the attention of the politicians, the press, and the public, the Clinton presidency may be still be remembered for its gifts to Hollywood. In fact, 1998 could be remembered as the heyday of the fact-based political satire. And while allegedly crooked politicians and unquestionably corrupt systems are veterans to the dunking seat, films like Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog, Mike Nichols's Primary Colors, and Warren Beatty's Bulworth made a splash that couldn't help but leave the audience wet.
This new crop of celluloid satires poke serious fun at our current political climate, where forestalling, covering up, or distracting from the truth have apparently become election-winning (or impeachment-dodging) strategies, and where idealism seems to have become a casualty of growing up, whether you are the candidate or the voter. If we laugh at the irony of a system where liars prosper, we must also laugh at ourselves, the lied-to. These biting political salvos question what truth is and just how we feel about it.
In Wag the Dog, the President of the United States is accused of molesting an underage visitor during a White House tour. His panicked aids bring in a master spin doctor to control the press and save the upcoming election. Enter Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro), an odd mixture of cynicism and misplaced faith. Brean, whose credo states that truth is whatever people see and hear on TV, decides that the way to divert public attention ...
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