A Review Of Charlie Wilson's War

A drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan,
this film is directed by Mike Nichols and based on a book by George Crile. This is based
on the largest covert opertation in history. It tells us of Wilson's efforts to assist
rebels in their war with the Soviets that have some profound and long-reaching effects
on the rest of the world.

This film is said to be based on fact, and yet I would bet that most people never heard
of Wilson. It stars Tom Hanks as Rep. Charles Wilson, a swinging, hard-drinking, coke-using
liberal Democrat who more or less single-handedly, if you can believe this, defeated the
Russians in Afganistan. After suffering humiliating losses the Soviets withdrew in 1989 and
and Ronald Reagan got all of the credit. How could the actions of Wilson's operation taken
place without anyone knowing?

Wilson, who interests include hanging around plenty of drugs, women and scotch,takes an
unexpected interest in the events in Afghanistan and the terrors of the Soviet Union in the
1980's. Knowing that the U.S.could not afford to have weapons from the U.S. found in Afghanistan,
he enlisted the help of Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) a renegade CIA covert mission
expert and Joanna [Julie Roberts]a wealthy socialite, he raises money to provide Afghanistan
with the launchers and antitank weaponry they need to cause some rather serious damage to the
Russian Military.

Besides the superior acting portrayed in this film, I believe that the script which gave the
characters a liberal atmosphere to develop their own well developed characters was one of the
success of this movie.

Taking into consideration the time frame that this was suppose to be taking place in, trying
to defeat a nation such as the Soviet Union was no easy task. Wilson uses strategic ties with
committies to raise funding of weaponry in Afghanistan from $5 million to $10 million with a
simple command, but the president of Pakistan scoffs at the idea of winning a war for such a
trival ammount. By the end of the Wilson campaign, $1 billion is sent to the Mujahedin to shoot
down Russican helicopters - the first step toward victory, as Wilson predicted.

This film was realixed in December of 2007 and it is one of the best movies that deal with war
that I have seen. But the ironic thing about this film is that the so called good guy rebels that
we are cheering would eventually become our mortal enemies.

But what about after the Soviets pull out? There is little support in Congress with the idea that
we should help Afghanistan's rebuild and the rest is history. The rise of the Taliban regime and
the future re-entry of the U.S. into Afghanistan.