![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Charlie Wilson's War
Dec. 23rd, 2007 11:25 amSaw Charlie Wilson's War with the folks last evening, afterwards we had a lovely meal at Tapas - which included a vegetable medley, lamb chops, and creme brulee. (Am definitely making a bee-line for the gym when I get home and going to cut way back on the sugar consumption. Really envy people who are not addicted to sugar.) Came home and watched a documentary on the real Charlie Wilson via The History Channel, with the screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin as one of the commentators. (He's a lot younger than I thought, Sorkin, not Wilson.) Do not recommend seeing the documentary until after you've seen the film - it will ruin/spoil the film for you. This is the type of film you need to go into not knowing all that much, I think. Except for the general facts or basic storyline.
Charlie Wilson's War written by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Mike Nicols, and starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymore Hoffman, may be the best thing Hanks, Nicols, Sorkin and Roberts have done in quite some time. Hanks is brilliant in it and looks a great deal like Charlie, oddly enough. The writing is crisp, on target, and reminiscient of Sorkin's earlier works - first year West Wing, Sports Night, and An American President. It subtly swings towards satire, doesn't fall into preachiness, and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions. It's also amongst the leanest films I've seen. Clocking in at a little under two hours, the film does not bore us with irrelevant subplots or attempt to be a biopic of Charlie Wilson, which makes the film unique admidst all the other war flicks debuting this fall.
The story is a topical one - it concerns how a playboy congressman, whose biggest accomplishment was to get elected five times, a wealthy Texas right-wing socialite, and an irreverant and down on his luck covert CIA operative manage to defeat the Russians in Afganistan and bring to a crushing halt the cold war. And yes, it is all true. Actually the reality is even more bizarre than the movie version. The irony of course is that now the US finds itself in the same position that the Soviet Union was in back in the 1980's. And the fact that we are in that position has a heck of a lot to do with what Charlie Wilson managed to pull off. As one commentator put during the documentary - Charlie manages to defeat the Soviet's yet accidentally sets in motion the events that lead to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Queada.
Is it an anti-war flick? I thought so, but my folks disagreed. It could be considered either, depends on your point of view. But it does make you pause, when you consider how what we do today may effect our tomorrow in ways we could not foresee and not necessarily desire. The best part of the picture may be the last line...right before the credits roll, which I'll let you see for yourselves.
Rating: A-
Charlie Wilson's War written by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Mike Nicols, and starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymore Hoffman, may be the best thing Hanks, Nicols, Sorkin and Roberts have done in quite some time. Hanks is brilliant in it and looks a great deal like Charlie, oddly enough. The writing is crisp, on target, and reminiscient of Sorkin's earlier works - first year West Wing, Sports Night, and An American President. It subtly swings towards satire, doesn't fall into preachiness, and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions. It's also amongst the leanest films I've seen. Clocking in at a little under two hours, the film does not bore us with irrelevant subplots or attempt to be a biopic of Charlie Wilson, which makes the film unique admidst all the other war flicks debuting this fall.
The story is a topical one - it concerns how a playboy congressman, whose biggest accomplishment was to get elected five times, a wealthy Texas right-wing socialite, and an irreverant and down on his luck covert CIA operative manage to defeat the Russians in Afganistan and bring to a crushing halt the cold war. And yes, it is all true. Actually the reality is even more bizarre than the movie version. The irony of course is that now the US finds itself in the same position that the Soviet Union was in back in the 1980's. And the fact that we are in that position has a heck of a lot to do with what Charlie Wilson managed to pull off. As one commentator put during the documentary - Charlie manages to defeat the Soviet's yet accidentally sets in motion the events that lead to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Queada.
Is it an anti-war flick? I thought so, but my folks disagreed. It could be considered either, depends on your point of view. But it does make you pause, when you consider how what we do today may effect our tomorrow in ways we could not foresee and not necessarily desire. The best part of the picture may be the last line...right before the credits roll, which I'll let you see for yourselves.
Rating: A-