the phoney war

[James Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anders writes: >Too bad they didn't have the guts to base the movie on
Larry Bensky's _American Hero_... "Wag the Dog" was roundly dismissed by
critics, largely because it's absurd to suggest that you could get away
with staging a pretend war ... Even if you could fake it, why would you?<

It makes sense in terms of the movie because there are so few days before
the election; setting up a full-scale war takes a lot of preparation. They
don't care if people find out about the war being fake as long as it's
after the election (though they do object to the Dustin Hoffman character
telling everyone the details, how it was organized).

The film is making fun of Tinsel Town along with US politics, which may be
why it's more popular with critics here. Hoffman is also very good.

I agree that a Bensky-based movie might be better, as with the film "Bob
Roberts." Hollywood almost _always_ lacks the guts. And "Bob Roberts" was
too preachy, as I'm afraid "American Hero" might be.

I almost lost it during "Wag the Dog" during a scene where they had a
mixed-race chorus singing a pro-war/anti-Albania song in the style of
"Hands across America" and other liberal/feel good initiatives of the 1980s.

in pen-l solidarity,




Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
"A society is rich when material goods, including capital, are cheap, and
human beings dear."  -- R.H. Tawney.