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. [Mike Nichols, 2007, USA, Rating M, Running time 100 minutes]

“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 most astounding, 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 hottubbing with TV producers and 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). 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 nearly $1 billion.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are satisfying performers but Hoffman is the scene-stealer, with a wonderfully gruff, heavily mustachioed character. His recent Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor is no surprise and the film richly deserved its Golden Globe nominations (including Best Picture).

Veteran director Mike Nichols’ latest film is a finely crafted,satirical and powerful eye-opener for those ignorant of the indulgences of American politics in the 1980s. The writer, Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, among many) cleverly 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 $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 anti-American sentiment that now threatens the world.

4 flims.