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."
Ronald Wilson Reagan had nothing to do with the fall of the Soviet Union...
You make some excellent points.
Seems like it must have been 100 years ago that someone with a D after their name would be motivated by patriotism - but then again this was pre-clintonism. I feel that clintonism is has changed a lot in our body politic.
I remember being impressed by this book in the simple fact that although there are 435 members of congress it is only the inner circle of committee chairmen and in some cases sub-committee chairman that hold the real power. The rest are just scenery.
I’ll look for that book - thanks.
However I have to question your last comment - of course the grunt work was done by Afghanis - how could it be otherwise? No one was claiming that Charlie personally went up into the mountains and shot down Russian helicopters - right?
He was in the process. After the movie came out, he went around badmouthing it.
he was pretty good in The Departed also
I need to watch that movie again because years ago when I saw it I really did not like it.....since then I have heard a lot of good comments about the film...
I saw that a few months ago, but it was subpar for Scorsese. Just too over-the-top.
This article is interesting. I hadn't planned on seeing the movie because the regular MSM was making it out to be "see what happens when Americans MEDDLE in the affairs of other countries". I still don't trust Tom Hanks. He will act all patriotic, but then he's buddies with Bill Clinton.
Mercury Rising starred Willis and Baldwin.
Alec Baldwin may be an a$$hole, but he steals the show in these kind of roles. People will be quoting him in this movie for the next century.
Baldwin may be a worthless scumbag in real life, but he is a scumbag par-excellence in the movies!
Wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.
Modern Hollywood Law is that The Hero Shall Have No Possibility of Being a Republican.
Whenever they violate that law, the movie becomes a surprise success.
There is much to agree in that book, but our war with Islam began with a camel thief named Mohamed who tried to take over Mecca and had to flee for his life to Medina where the local jews and christians rejected him. The muslims may not be well educated about the west insofar as culture goes but they do know their history and of every battle they lost. Al Qaida is merely the manifestation of the activists, but our problem has been and is with Islam itself. An absurd ideology masquerading as a religion.
It’s fantastic. What didn’t you like?
To be honest it was so long ago but I remember being real bored by it.....I have changed since then and I want to rent it because I have heard it is really a great film and I have a feeling I may appreciate it now.....
You obviously never read Crile’s book.
Mr. Schweaty runs a bakery, doesn’t he?
Have you tasted the Schweaty Christmas Balls ?
You obviously never read Criles book.
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