Wag The Dog And Saturday Night Live Analysis

A representational study of Barry Levinson’s film, Wag the Dog and Saturday Night Live (SNL)’s parody of Donald Trump’s campaign highlight the symbiotic relationship between the political landscape and individuals in society. Both composers integrate the vital idea that the political landscape is fragile and constructed by individuals and accordingly, the people find purpose and patriotism from political people in power. Levinson affirms the concept that the political representations are precarious and easily manipulated by spin-doctor individuals where absolute truth does not exist. Where as critics like SNL suggest the motivations in political landscapes can be misinterpreted by individuals and thus create controversy. Through the overall

Levinson parallels the politics to an overarching theatrical metaphor to demonstrate through different characters, their ways to construct truth. In the characterisation of Motts, he considers politics as “pure Hollywood” and another medium “for the credit”, presenting to audiences the perspective that the political landscape is fabricated and like theatre able to be controlled. Accordingly, we are compelled to question the truth within the political landscape upon having enhanced understanding for individuals’ ability to ‘play and stop’ occurrences just like in the dialogue, “the war isn’t over until I say its over”. Similarly, Levinson employs Brean as a vehicle to introduce alternate ways spin-doctor individuals “just got to distract” attention from the truth that makes up the political landscape. Low angle shots are utilised in the opening scene to capture Brean walking down the hallway, suggesting how true power and control is within the spin-doctor individuals who create political landscape. His truncated and didactic rhetorical questions with “what good are they if they show no war?” emphasises his sense of knowledge and ability that convinces audiences and the American people that a constructed truth is the absolute truth. Ultimately, we are persuaded to be wary of the deception that make up the political landscape as

From SNL’s parody of Trump’s campaign we can see that the landscape is fractured and may be interpreted in numerous ways by individuals in society. Satire is employed to ridicule Trump’s biased image, showing how the representation of political figures are dependent on individuals. The contrast of inspirational non diegetic background music to the satirical monologues of American people demonstrate how the image Trump attempts to present can be easily misinterpreted as racist and controversial. The irony in “he’s definitely not P.C” conflicts against the representation that politicians are supposedly politically correct which is further emphasised with a panning shot that captures a Trump supporter burning books symbolic of Trump’s lack of appreciation for the truth and instead makes his own. As a result, we are lead to view such controversy as a weakness of the political landscape as SNL effectively shows the power of individuals in affecting the representation of political