6/8/08

Charlie Wilson's War

We thoroughly enjoyed this factually based movie with a big star studded cast. It tells the true story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson's single handed effort to arm the Afghans against the might of the Russians during the 1980's.

As we all know now, the implications of this have had some serious ramifications years later, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Interestingly the ending gives more than a nod to the problems this later caused the USA, but Charlie Wilson is depicted as predicting this would happen if we didn't 'finish the job'. We only have the filmakers angle on whether this was actually what he believed.

Tom Hanks is very believable in this role and gives it great credibility, Julia Roberts is also good and Philip Seymour Hoffman is great as usual. There were alot of 'laugh out loud' moments as Charlie was far from 'whiter than white', but I suspect this depiction is probably pretty close to the mark for quite a alot of politicians!

If you are sensitive to nudity or language, then this not the movie for you. But if you have an interest in politics, recent history and like the actors then I would definitely recommend it.

3 comments:

Tess Kincaid said...

Haven't seen this one yet...thanks for the recommendation. Love Philip Seymour Hoffman, he is so talented.

Daryl said...

Did you watch this on DVD? If so there should be a interview w/the real Charlie Wilson as well as Tom Hanks and I think Mike Nichols.

It was a really good film ..

:-Daryl

Unknown said...

Daryl - yes we did and we watched the documentary, very interesting