Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie Review

Heads they win, tails we lose.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 29, 2026

A razor-sharp political satire that's sadly more relevant than ever these days, Barry Levison's Wag the Dog is small in scope but manages to say a lot in just 97 minutes. Yours truly caught this in theaters at age 18, where I was likely the youngest audience member, and unsurprisingly a lot of its jokes and nuances went way over the head of someone more concerned with video games than current events. But even a goof like me could tell this was a production with purpose, one starring two acting titans who were flanked by a terrific supporting cast. Wag the Dog is almost 30 years old now but Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray only served as my second viewing, and its great new A/V presentation contributes to what should mark the second life of this largely forgotten 1997 film.

Falling a lot closer to the cynical mindset of Network than All the President's Men but with the much more overt comic sensibilities of Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts (another film badly in need of a Blu-ray redemption), Wag the Dog examines the time-tested tradition of media-assisted distraction to cover up political scandal. Famously arriving in theaters mere weeks before the massive coverage of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky (a fact that's also underlined in one of the accompanying DVD-era bonus features), Levinson's film may have been prophetic in that sense but it really just reminds us that things had already been this way for years, if not decades or perhaps even always.

A sex scandal is also at the heart of Wag the Dog when The President of the United States (shrewdly never seen) is caught making advances on an underage girl less than two weeks before re-election. It's already fully broken by the media, so one of the President's elite spin doctors, Conrad Brean (De Niro), is brought in to get things under control. Working with a number of the President's staff including his aide Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), Conrad's plan is to stage a fictional war with Albania by bringing in Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) for assistance. A real war won't happen, of course: instead, it'll be manufactured on a sound stage with paid actors and blue-screen to sell the illusion. When that doesn't last, a mysterious "war hero" is conjured out of thin air: the beloved and totally fictional Sergeant William Schumann (name redacted), AKA "Old Shoe", who's apparently been left behind in war-torn Albania and must be brought home by the Prez in a final push for re-election. "Old Shoe" even gets his own chart-topping song penned by folk musician Johnny Dean (Willie Nelson), which is manipulated to sound like a genuine archival recording rescued from some dusty, forgotten archive... all because the Commander in Chief won't admit to liking young girls.

I'd seen Wag the Dog once before, as mentioned above... but having completely forgotten most of the plot during my last 29 years of life, Warner Archive's new Blu-ray edition may as well have been my first viewing. This isn't exactly a densely-layered film (though again "dense" enough to mostly go over the head of young me), but it's one that's briskly paced and fat-free with terrific dialogue and damn near perfect casting from top to bottom. The stacked supporting cast also includes Denis Leary, Kirsten Dunst, Craig T. Nelson (as the President's political rival, Senator John Neal), Woody Harrelson, John Michael Higgins, John James Belushi, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, and even Merle Haggard. The unfussy, workmanlike cinematography by Robert Richardson -- whose resume is appropriately loaded with political and wartime films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, A Few Good Men, and Nixon -- likewise just feels right and wraps everything up with a stylized but vaguely documentary-style bow. Even without the benefit of hindsight, Wag the Dog would be a very solid little film that's just as great as the sum of its parts, if not a little bit more.

Warner Archive's well-appointed Blu-ray marks a significant step forward in regards to A/V quality, replacing New Line Cinema's serviceable 1998 DVD that was not only authored on a dreaded "flipper" disc (sharing its real estate with a pan-and-scan version) but packaged in an equally dreaded "snapper" case. The boutique label's new and apparently exclusive 1080p transfer is sourced from a recent 4K scan of the original camera negative with lossless sound and it throws in all the key DVD-era bonus features just for good measure. It's an excellent package all around.

Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I've written at length about Warner Archive's treatment of catalog titles from all eras of filmmaking, so you can bet their 1080p transfer of a "newer" title (relatively speaking) earns an objective 5/5 in the visual department. The recent vintage of its source material likely meant that a lot less cleanup was involved than usual, so the bulk of its immediate improvements over New Line's 1998 DVD are rooted in resolution as well as texture. Simply put, the film's workmanlike but often luminous cinematography looks better than ever hear, perfectly clean and crisp while retaining a purely film-like patina that should look pretty damn great on any size screen. As seen in these direct-from-disc screenshots, it's a wonderful effort that carries all the strength of Warner Archive's usual "restorations" (probably not the right word in this case) and represents as impressive a leap forward as fans of the label have come to expect. The encoding is excellent as well, as Wag the Dog runs at a high and supportive bit rate on this dual-layered disc.

Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix sounds full and healthy; it's obviously not all that aggressive during long stretches, but nonetheless offers plenty of front-forward support for dialogue, effects, and of course the original score by Mark Knopfler, who's perhaps best known for both Local Hero and The Princess Bride (not to mention being the lead singer and songwriter of Dire Straits, of course). I've always been of the mindset that a film doesn't have to feature non-stop explosions and LFE to earn a 5/5 in the audio department -- it just has to sound great with no tangible room for improvement, and that's exactly what we get with this lossless 5.1 track.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and a few great DVD-era supplements.

• Audio Commentary - Director Barry Levinson and Dustin Hoffman sit down for this well-organized legacy track, which is proudly announced by its host as being recorded for the "New Line Platinum Series DVD" (always a sign of quality back in the day). Like many commentaries from this era, especially those recorded for Criterion, this is spliced together from two -- or perhaps more -- different conversations with both featured participants, who are each introduced when they speak during various scenes throughout the film. Despite a handful of dead spots, what's here is very good and certainly well worth watching for fans of the film.

• From Washington to Hollywood and Back (24:43) - Although its opening text presents Wag the Dog as a type of prophetic piece predating the Clinton sex scandal (which is kind of was), this highly prescient mini-doc also expertly targets the increasingly blurred line between movies, politics, news, and entertainment as well as other subjects. It's loaded with a wide variety of interview subjects including director Barry Levinson, producer Jane Rosenthal, screenwriter Bud Schulberg, journalist Tom Brokaw, filmmaker John Frankenheimer, Dustin Hoffman, filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, and others. It's an essential watch for sure.

• Q&A: Macy on Mamet (5:58) - This short piece serves up a handful of on-screen questions for actor William H. Macy, who provides comments regarding his working relationship with co-writer David Mamet.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:34) - Check it out here.

Wag the Dog Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Barry Levison's Wag the Dog didn't exactly go under the radar in 1997, earning a solid return on its small budget, but it's rarely brought up in conversations among the best in a great decade of filmmaking. This is a film that feels slightly "of its time" but universal in its (unfortunately) enduring message, and for that reason has aged quite a bit better than expected. Warner Archive's Blu-ray gives it some much-needed support as Wag the Dog's last domestic home video release was all the way back in 1998, so you can expect a massive leap forward in the A/V department. Collectively, it's a fine package that comes Highly Recommended to fans and first-timers too.