Notes on "Charlie Wilson's War"

The film Charlie Wilson's War is about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the role of Congressman Charlie Wilson in providing funding for the resistance. It stars Tom Hanks, Julie Roberts and Phillip Seymore Hoffman, was written by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing, and directed by Mike Nichols. These are such very competent people and we are so used to seeing their work that we are swept along. It is an entertaining couple of hours. Only afterwards did I stop and realize that there was so little there. This is a political procedural, like a TV cop show or hospital drama. Things happen that appear to have great moral weight but no one changes fundamentally.

The story is based on real world events. Just as in the real world Charlie Wilson had a reputation as a rake, became obsessed with Afghanistan, coerced a reluctant CIA to become involved in the effort to resist the Soviets. Some people have said that the defeat of the Soviet Army there brought down the Soviet Union, though it is of course a bit more complicated than that. But the movie is not very interested in the war in Afghanistan. This is depicted in a couple of montages, the movie is not very interested in the politics, not interested in the refugees. It seems mostly interested in the irony of the assertion that it was a libertine Democrat, and
not the moralistic Reagan that brought the Soviets to their knees.

- J