CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR Universal Pictures
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Written By: Aaron Sorkin from George Crile’s novel
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Rachel Nichols, Emily Blunt
Screened at: Universal, NYC,12/3/07
Opens: December 25, 2007 If there’s one thing the priggish in the audience should come away with it’s this: don’t judge political leaders too harshly by their morals. Judge them by what they accomplish on the job. You may think they’re supposed to set a moral example for their constituents, but leave that for the teachers and religious leaders. If a politician dilly-dallies with an intern or has a taste for liquor, or favors cleaning his pores in hot tubs with strippers, that’s his (or her) private life. (OK maybe this should not be done in the Capitol building or the White House, but that’s another story.) If a boozer can get a brutal Soviet occupier out of a country, in this case the Soviets out of Afghanistan, who cares what he does within closed walls with the babes or the bottle? The particular hero who has drawn the attention of Mike Nichols, a satirist best known for “The Graduate,” which derides the plastics-packing urge in America and more recently and more apropos with “Primary Colors,” about a Southern governor running for president who is both a womanizer and an idealist, is Charlie Wilson. “Charlie Wilson’s War” is based on a true story of a member of the House of Representatives from the Second Congressional District of Texas, a Democrat during the Reagan administration who could have had it easy. By his own admission, his re-elections were a piece of cake since his people wanted little: just the right to bear arms and the maintenance of low taxes. They cared not that their liberal rep in the Capitol building favored the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, a decent minimum wage and strong regulation of big business, none of which is brought out in the movie, but then again George Crile’s book by the same name which has been adapted by scripter Aaron Sorkin is 560 pages long, and therefore the film deals with only the sexier points. Wilson (Tom Hanks) is known as “Good Time Charlie” because he is fond of young women—his assistants are all of the fair gender and busty, including the impossibly cute Bonnie Bach (Amy Adams of “Enchanted”). One of his favorite sexual partners is the ultra-conservative, rigorously anti-communist Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), one of the richest women in the state. Ms. Herring, more politically serious than her smashing outfits would have one believe, advises the congressman of the plight of millions of hapless people under the Soviet bombardment of Afghanistan, urges Charlie to scrounge up far more than the pathetic $10 million from the defense subcommittee of which he is a member. He has a job cut out for him, one which would take charm, not high moral standards, to put across. The task would require him to put together a team consisting of renegade CIA man Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a blue-collar Greek American who hardly fits into the WASPish culture of the organization but who has special contacts knowledgeable about the kinds of weapons needed to fight the seemingly invulnerable Soviet Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships. (Israeli Stinger anti-aircraft missiles eventually were used, essentially modified forms of Chinese weaponry.) He assembles an unholy alliance of President Zia of Pakistan (Om Puri), an Israeli member of the Knesset, Zvi (Ken Stott), and two Egyptians in Cairo who are treated to a performance of a Texas belly dancer (Tracy Phillips) while business is discussed. The weapons are produced, the Soviet choppers are downed, the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan, Reagan takes the credit that belongs to Charlie Wilson, and the Cold War is history. “Charlie Wilson’s War” is the lightest of the political pictures that crossed the country’s theaters this year, a season that saw such serious fare as “Redacted,” “Taxi to the Dark Side,” “The Singing Revolution,” “Beaufort,” “Rendition,” “The Kingdom,” “The Devil Came on Horseback,” “Darfur Now,” and many others. Nichols manages to mix Marx-Brothers comedy with battle scenes, not always seamlessly. Some Feydeau-inspired farce, which has Avrakotos going regularly from Charlie’s chambers to a separate room while the congressman confers privately with his secretaries, is repetitious and unamusing. My principal gripe is that much of the humor would have been funnier if the picture came out shortly after the events being parodied, say, in the 1980s when scenes of politicians’ bedding nubile women might have been considered more shocking that they would be today. Politically aware members of the audience will note the principal irony. We supplied Saddam Hussein with funding and weapons to fight Iran. Saddam turned around and used the weapons against us. The U.S. gave weapons to Afghans to fight the Soviets. The Afghans, specifically the Taliban who took over the government, used those weapons against the U.S. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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