Amazon.com Essentials:
Not only was Barry Levinson's comedy shot in a relatively fast
period of 29 days, the satire of politics and show business feels as
if it were made yesterday. There's a fresh spin quite evident here, a
nervy satire of a presidential crisis and the people who whitewash the
facts. The main players are a mysterious Mr. Fix-It (Robert De Niro),
veteran Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman), and a White House aide
(Anne Heche). Can the president's molesting of a young girl be buried
in the two weeks before an election? A war in Albania just might do
the trick. In the good old days, the president would just invade. With
modern technology, it's even cleaner. The hungry press looks for any
lead, convenient misinformation is created by the latest Hollywood
fakery ("all developed by the new James Cameron film") creating images
and merchandise all instantly packaged. And it must be real, because
it's on TV. David Mamet's script never questions the morals or the
absolute secrecy needed to pull this thing off. He and director Barry
Levinson have enough truth in the story to make you wonder what is
real news and what is just promotion the next time you see CNN. Many
of the supporting players impact the story with mere presence: Denis
Leary as a quote man, Willie Nelson as a songwriter. The three leads
are magnificent. With the similarities between history and this film,
Wag will forever linked to the Monica Lewinsky saga. This video
version contains a new minidocumentary focusing on the parallels of
the film with the Bill Clinton scandal, including comments from
director Barry Levinson and hosted by newsman Tom Brokaw. --Doug
Thomas
