Posted on 12/05/2007 1:38:46 PM PST by murdoog
Charlie Wilson's War is the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today. Oscar® winners Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman team with Academy Award®-winning director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to bring George Crile's best-selling book to the screen.
Charlie Wilson (Hanks) was a bachelor congressman from Texas who had a habit of showing up in hot tubs with strippers and cocaine. His "Good Time Charlie" exterior, however, masked an extraordinary mind, a deep sense of patriotism and a passion for the underdog, and in the early 1980s the underdog was Afghanistan-which had just been brutally invaded by the Russians.
Charlie's longtime friend and patron and sometime lover was Joanne Herring (Roberts), one of the wealthiest women in Texas and a virulent anti-communist. Believing the American response to the Russian invasion was anemic at best, she prods Charlie into doing more for the Mujahideen (Afghan freedom fighters).
Charlie's partner in this uphill endeavor is CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman), a blue-collar operative in a company of Ivy League blue bloods. Together, the three of them-Charlie, Joanne and Gust-travel the world to form unlikely alliances among the Pakistanis, Israelis, Egyptians, arms dealers, law makers and a belly dancer.
Their success was remarkable. Funding for covert operations against the Soviets went from $5 million to $1 billion annually. The Red Army retreated out of Afghanistan. When asked how a group of peasants was able to deliver such a decisive blow to the army of a superpower, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq responded simply, "Charlie did it."
Oh no, One of my favorite movies. Its not outwardly political and it was long before he became a nutjob. Just like the Hunt for Red October, it portrayed America in a positive light and he was not his jacka#$ self. In fact, I would guess that he would not do that movie today.
I said it once, I’ll say it again, Baldwin may be a schmuck, but he should’ve gotten a Supporting Actor Oscar for GGR.
Dramas aren’t supposed to be slavishly faithful to historical fact. Never have been. Never will be.
He was actually the weakest link in that thing. Think about it...his scene was the stagiest and most strained element.
I’m going to see it. I’ll post my opinion.
Yes, I read the book too. It was a good read.
I notice the write-up failed to mention Charlie Wilson was a Democrat from Texas. Perhaps Hollyweird doesn’t want people to know that. I won’t watch the movie because I refuse to watch Julia Roberts in anything, she’s the world’s largest airhead.
Our mistake was walking away after the Soviets were driven out.
Radical Islam filled the void.
This is why we can’t leave Iraq.
Mercury Rising, wasn’t it?
Another perspective of the war was “Afghanistan: The Bear Trap,” written by the former Pakistan ISI director of Afghanistan operations Mohammad Yousaf (with Mark Adkin). Charlie did much to be proud of, but though the great percentage of arms shipments were provided by the USA (and dropped off to the ISI in Karachi), the grunt work was still done by Afghanis. And, by the way, Wilson never did visit Afghanistan.
It’s David Mamet. Most of his works are “stagey.” But remove Baldwin and his scene from the picture, and you remove understanding the motivation for why the other sellers were driven to such desparation to hold onto their jobs. All the actors were marvelous, though Baldwin and Jack Lemmon especially so. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Al Pacino so low-key (save for his scene about why he won’t deal with Patels).
It was stagey even compared to the rest of the film. It’s a minor quibble though.
My gut feeling is that is exactly what the movie will say. We’ll see. It’s a shame, because it could truly be a great story. Unfortunately it was handed over to Hollyweird.
Afghanistan happened BECAUSE the USSR was about to fall. The National Security Advisor basically told Reagan that based on the intelligence they had available, the USSR was on very shaky ground, and that collapse was imminent.
They predicted that one of two things was going to occur:
1. They’d collapse, with all the issues that come with that.
or
2. They’d engage in a military campaign, with the probably end target of Saudi Arabia, to stave off the inevitable. Wars are generally economic stimulators, unless you are the one getting bombed.
They chose 2. I heard this from the Assistant to the NSA at the time, who spoke to our group about this back in 2000.
I think all you need to know about this movie is that it was written by Aaron “Coked Up Clinton Fan” Sorkin. Also directed by Mike Nichols, aka Mr. Diane Sawyer. It’s a liberal Dem movie from top to bottom.
Thus, this movie. To show that they are actually the ones who are speaking against communism.
I think their finger's in the wind. The typical liberal messages aren't working anymore. Conservatism's happening. Thus, Hollyweird is going to try to make some anti-commie movies to cover themselves. We'll see more of these IMO.
LOL!
Sorkin is a very talented dramatist. It will at least be compelling on that end.
I watched a good movie last week that was stunning because it’s a new film that really shows the crushing oppression of communism. I kept thinking that it couldn’t possibly have been made in Hollywood these days. It’s called “Other People’s Lives,” and it’s in German with English subtitles. It’s about a rigid East German secret police operative in the early ‘80s who has to spy on a playwright and his girlfriend, gradually comes to realize what a horrible system he’s defending, and secretly tries to protect them from the corrupt communist tyrants at his own peril. I watched the making-of featurette, and the filmmakers went to extraordinary lengths to make everything in it absolutely authentic, right down to the crappy East German apartment furniture.
It was called the ‘The Lives of Others’. Hollywood liked it enough to give it a Foriegn Film Oscar. The actor who played the operative recently passed away from stomach cancer btw.
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