Charlie Wilson's War

It was a great video and well worth the time and money
A lesson in reality- we received it in a timely fashion.

"Charlie Wilson's War" directed by Mike Nichols and starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

1979: Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is milking political life for all it's worth. Charlie is regularly invited to parties thrown by people who hope to court favor with him for his priceless vote in congress and Charlie is only too happy to join in the festivities regardless of whether he intends to follow his host's recommendation. Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) a wealthy right wing socialite has a cause of her own that she would like Wilson to become involved in. After a casual (and I mean very casual) first meeting, Wilson decides to look into the Afghanistan situation for Herring and finds it to be very interesting indeed. A brief look at the leadership heading up the situation lets Charlie know the situation is anything but well in hand. With some help from his new found friend from the CIA Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) Charlie sets out to influence the dire situation of the Afghani's as they face heavy Russian opposition...

"Charlie Wilson's War" was actually a very pleasant surprise for me. I went in with low expectations because my first impression of the movie from the trailer wasn't an appealing one coupled with the fact that I have never been a Julia Roberts fan. Low and behold a very interesting and entertaining movie unfolded before me that also reveals a little bit of political history although I cant say how accurately history has been re-told.

The Good: The story was very good from start to finish. I don't know how accurately Tom Hanks (or the story) reflected the actual person Charlie Wilson or the events, but his take provided a very interesting character. The dynamic between his and his co-stars Roberts' and Hoffman's characters was great.

The Bad: Nothing memorable for me. Some nudity and drug use may be offensive for those with sensitive eyes.

Overall: Great movie. Check out "Charlie Wilson's war.

I lived in Jefferson County, Beaumont, Texas and our Congressman was Jack Brooks, with "Good Time Charlie" next door. He was most famous for his girl friends and collection of exotic cowboy boots, until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Then he made it his personal project, going so far as to visit Afghanistan and ride a horse while wearing a Colt Single Action Army or clone revolver: the U.S. Cavalry had ARRIVED.
God only knows what his antics stirred up, but he was re elected, but I can remember everyone trying to figure out what would be the state of things if this fool got shot, captured, or killed. But those things never happened as I suspect he traveled with a large number of body guards, some maybe even armed with the as yet unofficially supplied Stinger ground to Air shoulder fired missile. And he did get a good photo spread in NEWSWEEK.
So if you like entertaining fairy tales by all means pick up a copy. If you are concerned with the TRUTH, well that's a different story.

Most of the negative reviews didn't think the story was exciting enough or that Charlie was too flawed or that truth was mixed in with the story. To me that's the essence of why this movie is worth viewing. This is not an agenda driven film (like Oliver Stone's JFK) where Hollywood substitutes what never happened for what we know happened. Also, this is not an action movie like "The Bourne Identity". The strength of this movie is its frightening but accurate premise i.e. that a highly flawed nobody like Charlie Wilson ginned up the funding for covert operations in Afghanistan. He did it without any knowledge of the history of the region or of Islam. As Steve Coll described him in his book "Ghost Wars". "He saw the Mujahedin through the prism of his own whiskey soaked romanticism as noble savages fighting for freedom ,as almost biblical characters. Wilson used his trips to the Afgahn frontier in part to impress upon a succession of girlfriends how powerful he was( p91)." The movie is surprisingly faithful to this portrait of Charlie. Gust has perhaps the most important lines of the movie regarding the Zen Masters words after the Russians pull out. This brings the viewer to the question pertinent to today - yes, the USSR fell partly as a result of the covert war but what we created by arming and training the Mujahedin took on a life of its own that came back to bite the US. Would things have really been different if the US had stayed and built schools as suggested by Charlie?

The movie should be commended for faithfully portraying the mindset and US global outlook as it was in the 1980s. Its alarming that a single Congressman could drive foreign policy with little oversight and even less insight resulting in such profound and long lasting ramifications. It also leaves it up to the viewer to ask, knowing what we know now, was this really worth it? Would the downfall of Communism happened anyway? Reviews that praise the acting, directing and writing are correct but miss the main point that it is the story being told that is the movie's strength. Mike Nichols kept the story front and center and Aaron Sorkin's script delivers just what the title says it is - Charlie Wilson's War.

Have not been able to watch it yet. The delivery of the product was good and it was received in a very short time. Thanks. Jean