This is a 1997 movie starring De Niro. It's a political satire comedy.
Before the US president was re-elected, it was revealed that he had sexually assaulted a Girl Scout. There are now 11 days left until the presidential election date. The president quickly found a way to get political broker Conrad Brian to settle the matter for him. Brian was sure he didn't rush, he went to the famous Hollywood filmmaker Stanley Mozs. Together, the two launched an American invasion of Albania on a Hollywood studio. This is the first act of a comedy that has successfully diverted the public's attention. The second act that followed was even more sinister. The president claimed that a forgotten soldier in that battle became the opposing prisoner of war. In order to rescue the non-existent soldier, Brian and Moz planned a huge farce, and finally held a ceremony to bury the soldier in a solemn atmosphere. So far, the president's approval rate Reached 89% and was successfully re-elected.
After watching the movie, I started to ponder slowly. There is a subtitle at the beginning of the film, saying: "Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail is smarter than the dog, the tail will wag the dog." So, who is the dog and who is the tail in the film? The first time I watched it, I thought like most of my friends, the dog is the president and the tail is Brian and Moz. After thinking about it carefully, in this scam, not only Brian and Moz were involved, but the president was also the director, and he thought about changing the little cat in the arms of the fleeing girl into a little white cat. Later, at the behest of Stanley, the president also delivered a speech full of emotion and tears. The president is also an actor. Therefore, Brian, Moz, composers, singers, actors, old women on the street, reporters asking questions, and editors of the media are all tails of the group led by the president. So what is the purpose of their scam? It's all about mobilizing the public's emotions to get their votes. Clearly, the public is a dog.
Let's first look at the function of the tail. A few years ago, I watched an American TV series "House of Cards", and felt that the plot described in it was bizarre. It was very close to action movies and gangster movies, and far away from reality. Later, I heard a senior American politician comment: 90% of the plot in the play is true. My mind slowly turned around. Politicians who play politics for a living use the naivety and ignorance of the public to recklessly create scams one after another. For example, the invasion of Grenada mentioned in the film, the assassination of Kennedy, and what we see in a trance Yes, washing powder at the UN General Assembly, Trump's disinfectant, etc. From this, I realized a rule. Just as the basic quality of a businessman is a love of money, the basic quality of a politician is shamelessness. As said in the film, in the minds of politicians, those "values" used to advertise political correctness are like a joke, such as equality, justice, and freedom are just diplomatic rhetoric or a fig leaf, and they themselves do not believe it. Fortunately, these Western values have not been completely abandoned by politicians, and what remains is "democracy". And this concept of democracy, they interpret it as one person, one vote. Although the tails themselves "never vote". As long as they get this vote, they will create a great dirty space for them to do whatever they want in the future. This is what Stanley wants in the film, which he proudly calls "this is the highest state of politics".
Look at the role of the dog. The American public is divided into two parts, one is the elites and business leaders, and the other is the people at the bottom. After hundreds of years of economic development and peaceful life, the common characteristics of these two groups of people are that the IQ of science and technology has risen rapidly, and the IQ of humanities has dropped rapidly. In the film, through the mouth of a TV host, he said, "The president is just a product." As long as I don't violate my interests, as for who will be the president, it depends on who plays well. If you don't fight for a long time, the arms dealers quit, and when the battle gets bigger, the common people quit. After all, the consequences of the Korean War and Vietnam War were placed there, and everyone could see what happened to Truman and Johnson. Therefore, the tail wagging should be moderate. The public vote is like an admission ticket to a theater. When playing against the stage, everyone wants to see the wonderful performance. Anyway, the United States is powerful now, and others dare not provoke it. If you want to play well, it's okay to provoke others from time to time. Of course, bullying needs a politically correct excuse, as in the film, Albania built a suitcase-style atomic bomb. And then sending non-existent B-3 aircraft to bomb it is justifiable and eye-catching. Anyway, idle is idle. When seeing those old shoes in the film flying to the theater like rain, it is hard to imagine how many people are worried about the fate of Sergeant Schumann. He is dead or alive long ago. It doesn't matter, it's fine for everyone to have fun. For a dog that is half asleep, wagging its tail is the most comfortable thing to do.
Perhaps what the film reflects is the current state of American society. The power of the media is clearly displayed, no wonder Trump's mantra: "This is fake news." He knows it well.
In the film, De Niro's Brian is well-rounded, far less glamorous than Dustin Hoffman's Stanley. However, De Niro still played the image of Brian's long-term cunning and cunning.
My rating: 6.5.
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