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| Knopfler |
Wag the Dog: (Mark Knopfler) One of Barry
Levinson's lesser known but hysterically funny films was
Wag the
Dog, a witty 1997 satire about the frighteningly blurred line
between politics and Hollywood. During a presidential reelection
campaign, an incumbent American president is hit with a sex scandal, and
so, as you might expect, the White House hires the world's best spin
doctor to save the campaign. That concept in and of itself isn't
outrageous, but in the role of that spin doctor, Robert De Niro takes it
to the next level. He engineers a fake war between the United States and
the obscure country of Albania in order to change the focus of the
American people. While no military action is actually being taken,
Hollywood is employed to stage the war for television, which, as we all
know about American politics, is all that matters in a campaign. The
devilishly conceived plot is obviously exaggerated for the purposes of
black comedy, but the basic premise of the film is surprisingly
poignant. One important aspect of any political campaign, of course, is
music; anybody who witnessed a campaign stop by Democratic presidential
candidate Bill Bradley in 2000 is still trying to figure out why he used
"Mambo #5" as a theme song. In
Wag the Dog, part of the Hollywood
machine engaged by Dustin Hoffman's crew makes use of a drugged up
Nashville singer played by --no shocker here-- Willie Nelson, and
Willie's wholesome-sounding songs of unity are just the thing for a
political campaign. While the songs steal the show in
Wag the
Dog, mostly due to their lengthy screen time and Nelson's uncanny
ability to whip up a song to answer any political need, there is a short
but distinct role for Mark Knopfler's original score. The more you think
about it, the more you realize that Knopfler, whose solo music for the
album "The Golden Heart" was a Levinson temp track in the film, was an
intriguing choice for
Wag the Dog. Instead of returning to Hans
Zimmer's associates for the genuine heartland guitar music, why not turn
to the (ironically British) Knopfler, whose folk and country-laced music
is about as saturated in lazy Americana as a ballpark hotdog is in
ketchup and mustard.
Most people will be familiar with Knopfler only to the
extent that his score for
The Princess Bride (and mostly just the
main themes for it) made waves with teenagers a decade earlier. His
music for
Wag the Dog is similar in ensemble and recording
quality as the light guitar themes in that previous score, making for
some remarkably easy listening if you're inclined to turn your brain off
long enough to do so. There aren't any dominant themes this time,
though... just pleasant rhythms and motifs on Knopfler's own guitar
performances that repeat for several minutes with a light band ensemble
and occasional electric organ as backing. His standard wet-sounding
recording quality gives the album the ambience of a live performance
necessary to float the spirit of these compositions. Knopfler does a
surprisingly good job of altering each cue for the emotion of the
individual scene, especially in the more grim tones of "An American
Hero," without ever losing that overwhelming feeling of nationalism that
his music conveys. You'll be singing "This land is my land" during "In
the Heartland," a somewhat obvious showing of where the inspiration comes
from. But there's nothing really wrong with that. The best Knopfler
score cue is "Working On It," with a slight edge of cunning process
carrying over from the title song vocals in the cue before. Knopfler's
score only amounts to 19 minutes on album, and that album makes the
absolutely fatal mistake of clocking in at only 24 minutes and featuring
none of the Willie Nelson and ensemble song performances from the film.
This inexcusable flaw in the album is not Knopfler's fault, and there
are easily understandable legal reasons that were probably behind the
absence of Nelson's contribution on the soundtrack album, but from the
perspective of the listener, the album is an extremely disappointing
experience as it stands. There is a reason why you see so many copies of
this score for extraordinarily low prices in used CD bins; everyone
bought it in early 1998 thinking the funny Nelson songs would be on it
and they were instead treated to a very short presentation of decent,
but non-sustaining Knopfler music. Even some movie dialogue, as smart
and clever as it is (especially from the two leads) could have helped
save this album. If you're not a devoted Knopfler fan, then what's the
point?
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- Score and Songs as Heard in Film: ****
- Score as Written for Film: ***
- Album: *
- Overall: **
Lyrics for the title song and a list of participating band
members are included on the insert notes.
