Sunday, May 25, 2008
Charlie Wilson's Wild Ride
Mike Nichols and Aaron Sorkin justly matched the form and content to tell the story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and how he was at the center of the CIA covert operations for the mujahideen in Afghanistan against Russia in the eighties. In Charlie Wilson's War, three fine actors (Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts) movethis unlikely but true tale in the form of a zesty and high energy entertainment stressing the comedic elements.
The ten years that Wilson, CIA operative Gust Avrakotos, and Texas right wing activist and Texas society matron Joanne Herring designed, arranged for the funding of the mujahideen's resistance against the Russians were quite wild ride and this is the tone that Nichols and Sorkin maintain consistently for an hour forty. They also fill the story with some fun wallpaper such as the beautiful and smart staff of Wilson's and the depiction of his excesses.
In one of the DVD extras, Nichols talks about this story basically being one of transformation and making a difference. Towards the end of the film, Wilson, continued to be schooled by his partner Avrakotos, sees that it isn't over after the Russians leave. There is a painful scene where Wilson tries to get his fellow congresmen to rebuild a school. Wikipedia points out that the George Crile in the book the film is based on "wrote that the mujahideen's victory in Afghanistan ultimately opened a power vacuum for bin Laden: "By the end of 1993, in Afghanistan itself there were no roads, no schools, just a destroyed country -- and the United States was washing its hands of any responsibility. It was in this vacuum that the Taliban and Osama bin Laden would emerge as the dominant players." This is of course not the major plot component of Charlie Wilson's War,
but we can't help but look through the lens of "what ifs?" in our current time sculpted and transformed greatly by the events on a Tuesday morning almost seven years ago, once this film of Charlie's war rolls to an end.
posted by well-executed buffet at 10:20 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment