Posted on 12/21/2007 7:32:45 PM PST by flattorney
Produced by Wild Eyes Prods. Executive producers, Carl H. Lindahl, David Keane; producers, Ryan Spyker, Aaron Cowden; director, Keane; writers, Bowden, Terrence Henry. Narrator: Bill Lloyd. Editor, Justin Inda; music, Michael Plowman. Running time: 120 Min.
“Charlie Wilson’s War” (Wide Release Theater Movie)
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Adaptation, Biopic and War
Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.
Release Date: December 21st, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for strong language, nudity/sexual content and some drug use.
Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution
Production Co.: Icarus Productions, Participant Productions, Relativity Media, Playtone
Studios: Universal Pictures
Filming Locations: Morocco
Los Angeles, California USA
Produced in: United States
- - Based on the true story of how Charlie Wilson, an alcoholic womanizer and Texas congressman, persuaded the CIA to train and arm resistance fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union. With the help of rogue CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, the two men supplied money, training and a team of military experts that turned the ill-equipped Afghan freedom-fighters into a force that brought the Red Army to a stalemate and set the stage for conflicts in the Middle East that still rage to this day.
Reviews and additional movie information:
Movie Review Query Engine
Internet Movie Database
Yahoo Movies
Rotten Tomatoes
Book: Charlie Wilson's War:
The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (April 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0871138549
ISBN-13: 978-0871138545
------
PaperBack – 550 pages
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Pub. Date: April 2004
ISBN-13: 9780802141248
Posted for FlAttorney by TAB
Hope I look this good at 78 or even 58 - TAB
Posted by TAB for TxAttorney’s wife
That’s actually bad news. This is a good movie that treats the war fairly. If it bombs out we’re not going to get more. It’s too bad so many conservatives knee jerked and made assumptions about the content of the movie, assumptions which it turned out are 100% false.
If we want Hollywood to make our kind of movies we need to make the few that sneak through profitable. This is actually our kind of movie.
Was there anything in the book about the duplicity and errors of judgement on the part of the CIA in betraying the pro-Western Ahmad Shah Massoud's mujaheddin in favor of virulently anti-Western warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and others? Massoud tried to warn the CIA that those others would turn on us, but they refused to listen, as usual.
I look forward to seeing this movie. I just wonder though, if Wilson was a Republican, would Hollywood even make this picture?
I hear ya. However, IMO, it was heavily advertised to appeal to more liberal audience - as more humorous than serious, and cast was no exception. If I had to choose which movie to pay for based on adverts, I’d choose “Nation Treasure” sequel hands down, especially since I enjoyed first one.
On a good side - if it bombs - it will show (along with recent “anti-Iraq”, anti-military, anti-US BO bombs) just how deep the suspicion alone of liberal agenda in the movie will bury it and along with that maybe it will tell the actors and others in entertainment industry who expected and still expect to benefit from regularly trashing US and other “blame US first” crowd that it’s no longer a great way to advance their careers as far as being BO moneymakers, and may even produce an adverse reaction - at least in terms of domestic consumption. They might have to develop a two-tier structure of political movies - “trash US” for oversees, light patriotic fare for “Jesus freaks” and “right wing fanatics” at home.
Combined with hypocrisy and financial “betrayal” many in Hollywood now experience due to fractures apparent in writers’ strike, this may be a food for thought to many in the “community”. May also be or lead to some kind of pivotal turning point.
OT. Hope to see good “John Adams” miniseries on HBO, coming soon.
Yes, this was covered.
Yes, $2,805,000 in 2,575 theaters for an average of $1,089 per theater (estimate only) was a very weak opening but you need to consider the facts. Remember actual weekend box office gross revenue is not available until late Monday afternoon. It's not very intelligent of you to trash a movie on a one day only official estimate. I don’t know where you dug up that $6 million weekend BS but it is not an official estimate and lends no credibility to your “razzies”, bombing big-time, this turkey is over babble. Have you even seen the movie?
While I don’t expect CWW to be a blockbuster by any means it should do alright in comparative terms and with word-of-mouth increased ticket sales. There has been a number of liberal hacks anti-war movies released in the last half of the year so people may not initially give CWW a look, until they understand it’s actually a good comedy, and a politically balanced one at that. People are sick and tired of major release movies not being light and fun to watch. The lawsuit threat by Joanne (with Charlie in tow) and the substantial movie deletions also greatly hurt CWW’s opening market Many people will think CWW is now a hacked up piece of junk. Further, CWW has a large foreign countries release dates schedule which will be revenue interesting .
CWW was originally to be U.S. released on December 25, but was moved up to the 21st knowing that Fri-Sun will be the busiest shopping weekend of the year and movie attendance is typically very poor right before Christmas. Anything Universal makes from Dec 21-25 is unbudgeted revenue that will offset distribution costs on a movie with very low production costs. Add to the facts - that over half the Country has been hit was a major arctic storm with snow, freezing rain, and high winds. Add to the facts - that many people will watch the 5 Star two hour documentary on television - - The True Story of Charlie Wilson - - this weekend before deciding to see the movie. On this subject, we hosted a large watch party Saturday night for the documentary and afterwards almost everyone in attendance could not wait to see the theater movie.
It appears you missed the Time Magazine post above so I will post it again for your reading convenience
…. A year ago, the lockstep liberals who run the movie studios received a directive from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ordering them to finally make some films about the Iraq-Afghanistan catastrophe. The moguls dutifully complied, bankrolling top directors and Oscar-winning stars to make serious, worthy films eviscerating the Bush Administration's war policy. The laugh, for the right wing, (a.k.a. The Intelligent Majority - TAB) is that nobody went to see these movies. In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, Lions for Lambs, Redacted — together, in their entire theatrical runs, they earned only about what Will Smith's I Am Legend did on one day last weekend.
More facts you must have missed ……….
Total Worldwide Box Office Revenue
In the Valley of Elah: $12,851,486 (BOM Rating: C)
Rendition: $17,055,746 (BOM Rating: C)
Lions for Lambs: $47,111,450 (BOM Rating: D)
- - Starring: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, and Michael Peña
- - Movie lost $26.2 million due to substantially higher fully loaded costs than Charlie Wilson’s War.
Redacted: $220,307 (BOM Rating: F)
It will not require much for Charlie Wilson's War (BOM Rating: B / IMDB 7.4 – opening U.S. day) to beat all the above ultra liberal hack anti-war movies, not that I or anyone - - with maturity not financially invested in CWW - - cares about any of this. Frankly, I was surprised that ultra liberal Al Gore and A.I.T. movie butt kisser Roger Ebert liked CWW. I thought he would trash the movie after worshipping An Inconvenient Truth (4 of 4 stars) with his barf-fest review. He also loved some of the above disaster anti-war movies giving two of them 4 stars. Even the liberal movie review members at Ebert’s site gave CWW an overall 3.5 stars out of 4 stars max.
But you know what, if CWW’s director and producer had put a fraudulent man-made global warming hysteria spin on the movie - - because of the excess heat generated by all of Charlie’s hot tub parties, all night screw-a-thons, and his excess alcohol consumption induced belching and flatulence - - I’m sure CWW would be a mega box office revenue hit. Particularly since Charlie is a Texas “yellow dog” Democrat and one of the very few in the Country with balls - unlike Texas DA Ronnie “Soros Shadow Party and ultra liberal hack” Earle.
That’s my 3 cents while I’m shoving down some breakfast and reviewing this thread. You and your family have a great Christmas and New Year!
FlAttorney
No nor Republican U.S. Congress members either, *lol*. Charlie has lived the life that is for sure. He may have someone else's heart (full transplant two months ago at Methodist Hospital-Houston) in him now but he still has his soul. He said all he cared about was living long enough to see the movie hit the big screen. That God for the movie coming out because Charlie got a priority jump on the heart transplant waiting list to save his life. - FlA
"Ya know how we got freedom? By killing assholes! Ya know how we keep freedom? By killing assholes! … Any questions? .... Freeeeeedom!" - Ted "The Sledge" Nugent
Concur 100%! If the military brass had told the Washington candyass politicians to go straight to hell and then nuked Hanoi off the face of the Earth things would be very different now. Further, the candyass politicians are out of the effing skulls for allowing the massive trade our great Country does with communist China. Crazy fools! - FlA
I agree, O Brother Where Art Thou is on my list of the most enjoyable movies ever. I watch it over and over and never get tired of it, I have it memorized now and can recite the lines with the actors.
*Lol*, me too on your Hot Tub Tom comment. Since Tom is 14 years younger than Charlie he must have borrowed Wilson's idea, haa. And, ditto on the Herring honorary FReeper and Hillary comment. Thanks for your outstanding input. Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. - FlA
Gus Avrakotos graduated with my Father-In-Law (Aliquippa class of 55) and Poppy says the guy was all class. Insisted at every class reunion that he worked as this or that in government — usually as a nobody working in embassy operations. No one knew what he really did, of course. When the word came out, however, no one was surprised.
It’s an amazing small town. Home to Gus, Tony Dorsett, Mike Ditka, Pete Maravich, Henry Mancini, Ty Law, et al.
Ethnic Pennsylvania, eh? Back when immigration truly meant something.
Great post. I just read the posted obituary on Gus back up the thread....... helluva individual! Thanks for sharing, FlA
I watched most of the History Channel documentary.
IMHO, it was pretty good and showed Wilson “warts and all”.
The most amazing thing was hearing Aaron Sorkin actually sounding
(for the most part) as a reasonable, mainstream guy when assessing
the totality of Charlie Wilson.
Hearing someone like Sorkin making even a bit of sense had me wondering
if I was having a stroke!
Interesting how Sorkin changed his tune the last month on this movie, and I will add the following cross-post, FlA.
“Charlies Wilson’s War” which freepers who have seen it say is very good. Congratulations Universal!
Yes, particularly since NBC-Universal could screw up a rock fight, *lol*. Further, some of the major GOP PAC's are behind this movie. It was no accident that Tom "still The Hammer" DeLay's attorney Dick Deguerin represented Joanne Herring and threatened to sue Universal if they did not cut out all the ultra liberal garbage in the movie, which Universal did cutting out about 40 mintues of footage for the final release.
Everybody has their own choice I found the commercials for National Treasure to be insulting, the plot appeared laughable and the idea that I would consider it a “suspense thriller” pathetic.
No if it bombs it will show that war movies can’t be profitable now. So then we won’t get the pro-America war movies we’ve been saying we want. They tried to play it liberal and it deservedly bombed, now they’ve tried to play it straight and it bombed too, they’ll now be canceling future war movies.
What’s the dateline on that Time article? From greenlight to release on most movies is about two years, so nothing in response to Nancy’s “request” since becoming speaker would be released yet, that would be 2008 early 2009 at the earliest. Hopefully CWW will at least do better than the others and Hollywood might decide that makes it worth taking another chance, a lot will depend on how expensive it was to make too, $30 million budget movies are easier to be profitable than $100 million budget, if it’s closer to the former then it could still hit the black.
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