Wag the Dog and Spinning Boris

[Persej]

Usually, good movies become popular, but some of the gems remain hidden from the general population. Such is the case with these two movies. The second one even I haven't seen until yesterday. If you like movies about elections, you have the see these two.

First one is Wag the Dog: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/

'Wag the Dog' is another film that proves to have been unintentionally prophetic. Shortly before an election, the President is embroiled in a potentially explosive sex scandal which threatens to end his presidency in disgrace. In order to distract the public's attention, his advisers concoct a wholly fictitious military crisis in the Balkans and hire a Hollywood producer to provide the necessary harrowing footage of war scenes. When the Albanian government protest that their country is not in fact at war, the aides present this as a triumph of American diplomacy that has averted the threatened crisis, and, in order to keep the affair in the public's mind, concoct a further sub-plot involving a supposed military hero (in real life a convicted rapist in a military prison) held prisoner by a rebel faction.

All of this may seem very familiar, but bear in mind that this film was made in 1997, two years before President Clinton, faced with a potentially explosive sex scandal which for a time threatened to end his presidency in disgrace, took America to war over a crisis in the Balkans. At least he didn't need to concoct a fictitious war.

And second is Spinning Boris: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324619/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The notion that three American political consultants could go over to Russia and successfully assist Boris Yeltsin to win the 1996 election would be ludicrous if it weren't for the fact that it is true!

I don't know how many things about Yeltsin campaign in the movie are true, but I can definitely recognize many elements of the election campaign strategy in my country from this movie. Things like this should be taught in school! At least in high school, if not elementary.

There is also another movie from this year about US meddling in other countries (American Made), and even though I also don't know how accurate it is, it is also very funny to watch: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3532216/?ref_=nv_sr_4