Charlie Wilson's War

Synopsis: The tragic-comic 'true' story of Democratic Texas Congressman, Charlie Wilson, who teamed up with CIA operative Gust Avrakotos to manoeuvre the US Government into covert funding of the Afghan Mujahadeen, thus defeating the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame."
Charlie Wilson

Charlie Wilson's War is one of the sharpest and definitely the most tragic-comic films yet about America's evolution as a bungling international 'supercop'. Charlie Wilson's story, so bizarre that surely they couldn't make it up, is adapted from George Crile's 2003 book about the extraordinary story of the largest covert operation in history.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a Texas Democrat at first only remarkable for his interest in watching TV broadcasts of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan while hot-tubbing with sleazy TV producers and topless "models". But he is distinguished by a growing aversion to Communists, fueled by his friend and romantic interest, the wealthy socialite, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts). Pressured by her Charlie goes on a fact-finding mission to meet the leadership of Pakistan and finds himself deeply moved by conditions in the refugee camps and outraged that the CIA's limited funding can only provide WWI rifles to the Afghan Mujahideen for use against invading armoured Soviet gunships. On his return to the USA, Charlie meets maverick CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and together they orchestrate an increase in covert support funding from $5 million to what eventually becomes $500 million (which was matched dollar for dollar by Saudi Arabia)

Tom Hanks is, as always, a satisfying performers but in support an Oscar-nominated Hoffman is a scene-stealer, as the wonderfully gruff, heavily mustachioed, fast-talking maverick CIA operative who guides Wilson through the mechanics of covert ops. On the other hand Roberts is garishly ballsy as Wilson's hardline right-wing Texan socialite love interest. Frankly it's hard to see where the supposed chemistry between her and the easy-going Wilson, is coming from. and why Wilson surrounds himself with decollété bimbos but never makes a move on any of them, or why his P.A. (Amy Adams) is of an entirely different stripe also seems odd.

Notwithstanding, veteran director Mike Nichols' latest film is a well-crafted satirical eye-opener for those ignorant of the indulgences of American politics in the 1980s. The writer, Aaron Sorkin (author of television's The West Wing, among many other credits) cleverly, albeit, one feels, at times a little too glibly, interprets an epic period of confrontation through the personal stories of eccentric characters who played a pivotal role in changing American foreign policy. The invasion of Afghanistan became akin to a Vietnam for the USSR, bleeding it of resources and ultimately leading to its collapse and the end of the Cold War.

Despite this 'glorious' victory in Charlie Wilson's war, the funding committee on which he played such a part ultimately rebuffed his efforts to contribute a measly $1m to rebuilding Afghani schools after the Soviets withdrew. The compelling implication of the film's epilogue is that this attitude missed an opportunity to build relationships with the region that could have defused the Islamic fundamentalist sentiments that would eventually lead to 9/11 and America's own invasion and occupancy of Afghanistan over the next 20 years.

 

 

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