By J.E.
It’s sometimes said that one individual can change the course of history, and, if the story told by the 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War is to be believed, that’s precisely what happened when a multi-term representative from the 2nd congressional district in Texas became interested in the plight of Afghan refugees following the Soviet invasion.
Witness the scene where Charlie Wilson is huddled in a room with a handful of CIA operatives led by Gust Avrakotos. The men talk about what kind of weapons it would take for the Afghans to shoot Soviet helicopters and planes out of the sky. Once the CIA weapons specialist makes a recommendation, Wilson goes about securing the necessary funds. Wilson gets his politicking done, the Afghans get their weapons, and shortly thereafter, the Soviets are retreating in defeat.
Not bad for a congressman whose most important vote to date concerned the Boy Scouts.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Back in the late 1980s, Charlie Wilson (played by Tom Hanks) was a popular, albeit ineffectual, congressman from Texas who was known more for his affinity for women, alcohol, and drugs than for anything he did in Washington, D.C.
But Wilson becomes interested in the Soviet-Afghan conflict, first by reading about it over the news wires, and then at the urging of Houston socialite (and sometime romantic interest) Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts). Herring sets up a meeting between Wilson and the Pakistani president, who has been outspoken about the lack of support from the U.S.
Wilson views the meeting as nothing more than a courtesy call, but once he sees how serious the Pakistani president and his advisers are about getting someone from the U.S. government — even a lowly representative from the 2nd congressional district of Texas — to take notice of the problems, Wilson starts to listen.
A subsequent visit to an Afghan refugee camp cements his interest in helping, and he becomes determined to use his position on an important defense appropriations committee to secure military and financial aid.
Of course, Wilson can’t do this on his own. Fortunately, he comes into contact with Gust Avrakotos (Phililp Seymour Hoffman), a CIA agent who has been trying to get someone to listen to him about the Afghan problem for years. Together, they start scheming about how to use back channels to get weapons into the hands of Afghan “freedom fighters” without anyone else in the world knowing that the U.S. was directly involved.
They manage to succeed, obviously, and in 1989, Soviet troops began to pull out of Afghanistan for good.
My Reaction: Prior to seeing this film, I had no idea who Charlie Wilson was, nor did I understand the significance of the Soviet-Afghan conflict in terms of the Cold War. I was too young to pay attention to politics when the invasion began, and was just beginning to read world news by the time it ended. So I can’t really speak about the historical context of this film, or opine as to whether or not it’s accurate. All I can do is give you my thoughts about the movie as presented by director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.
I usually stay away from movies with political themes, since many of them are far too complicated for my tastes (e.g. Syriana). But Sorkin, as he did for so many years on The West Wing, manages to distill the most important points of the story and put it into terms that the average person can understand. I had no trouble following the plot, the character motivations, or the consequences, and as a result, the film was extremely engrossing and enjoyable.
At first I had reservations about seeing Tom Hanks play a boozing womanizer. However, that’s not how Charlie Wilson came off at all. Hanks brought a certain earnestness to the role that made the character likable despite all of his obvious flaws.
The Sorkin script was fast-paced and contained lots of snappy dialog, which, combined with the star power brought to the screen by Hanks, Roberts, and Hoffman, makes the film appealing to a wider audience than you’d expect. Because of this, I give Charlie Wilson’s War 8.0 stars out of 10, and highly recommend it!
Hardly a week goes by without a young Hollywood starlet or pseudo celeb making headlines because of missteps in their personal lives. From Britney’s custody standoff with police to Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, and Paris Hilton all getting busted for various DUI-related incidents, it sometimes seems like the tabloids will never run out of this type of material. These people are such easy targets because they’re obviously not interested in changing their lifestyle.