Charlie Wilson's War Review

Overall 4.47 of 5 view all 15 reviews

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bkovacs
Annandale, VA

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It's entertainment, folks

into movies that tell a great story, a history buff, a Tom Hanks fan

Pros

Humor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Neat look into recent history, Beautiful women

Cons

Quick dialog a little much in spots, Glib

DEC

2007

I've been seeing lots of movies lately and one I looked forward to was Charlie Wilson's War. I really wasn't sure what the movie was about but it quickly became clear that Charlie Wilson was an actual US congressman and he spearheaded efforts to arm Afghanistan's mujahadeen in their battle against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The results of that arming are still playing out in battlefields all over Afghanistan but that doesn't diminish what Congressman Wilson did in the mid-1980s. Yes, the movie is about a true story.

Charlie Wilson, a booze-loving and skirt-chasing do-nothing congressman from Texas, sees that there is an opening to punish the Soviets in Afghanistan and he somehow finds the one person in the CIA who can possibly help. Soon, the two are plotting how to get weapons to the mujahadeen that will shoot Soviet helicopters out of the sky. The battle eventually goes from a duck shoot for the Soviets to a grinding, bleeding, can't-be-won cat fight.

Charlie manages the war from Congress, using his seats on various committees that enable him to earmark money for the CIA without revealing it to the public. He's also shown wrangling with Pakistan, Egypt and Israel for their assistance, eventually getting Saudi Arabia to agree to financing half the war. The backroom cigar-smoking scenes are always funny, if not downright hilarious, and Tom Hanks plays the role as if born to it. Considering he's a BIG movie star, he had me completely thinking he was Charlie Wilson.

Julia Robert's role is important but relatively small. She plays a real-life Texas socialite who knows how to pull strings behind the scenes to get things done. She's also one of Charlie Wilson's favorite skirts to chase. Although Julia Roberts is pleasant enough to look at, Charlie surrounds himself with an office staff that's exceptionally easy on the eyes, including Amy Adams (the princess in Enchantment) as his chief of staff. It's all in the name of entertainment.

In fact, some of the professional movie critics grumble about how Charlie Wilson's War treats politics like a funny vote swap and war like a struggle for glory, but I think they've lost sight of the fact that the film is intended to be entertainment, not a documentary on PBS. I was nicely entertained by Charlie Wilson's War, and the film had me laughing out loud in spots. If I can learn some history with a chuckle, I'll study history every day.

I recommend Charlie Wilson's War. Be forewarned that there is some nudity and a lot of rough language in this movie. Charlie Wilson is no saint and you're aware of that from the very beginning. However, if this is the way the story actually went, we've got too many saints in government and could use a few more sinners.