Charlie Wilson's War

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Charlie Wilson's War

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mike Nichols
Produced by Tom Hanks
Written by George Crile (book)
Aaron Sorkin (screenplay)
Starring Tom Hanks
Julia Roberts
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Amy Adams
Ned Beatty
Om Puri
Music by James Newton Howard
Cinematography Stephen Goldblatt
Editing by John Bloom
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Playtone
Release date(s) December 21, 2007
Running time 100 min.
Country United States
Language English
Dari
Urdu
Russian
Arabic
Budget $75 million
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Charlie Wilson's War is a 2007 biographical drama film based on the true story of Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who conspired with a "bare knuckle attitude" CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan mujahideen resist and ultimately defeat the Soviet Union's military occupation of the nation.

The film is adapted from George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.[1] It is directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Ned Beatty. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including "Best Motion Picture", but did not win in any category. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Supporting Actor," but did not win.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Wilson is seen cavorting decadently in a Las Vegas hot tub among naked women and implied drug use when he catches a "60 Minutes" TV broadcast showing Dan Rather reporting remotely from Afghanistan and in full native dress. Rather (via original footage) is shown reporting on the struggles of the Afghan resistance, primarily the mujahideen, covering not only the Soviet invasion, but how it was being resisted with wholly inadequate equipment and weapons. This moves Wilson to look into matters further and upon finding how little the United States was doing to help the Afghan fighters, he uses his Congressional position on two important defense committees to summarily double the U.S. assistance from a paltry $5 million to a slightly less paltry $10 million.

The film shows the liberal Wilson having a very gregarious social life of women and partying, including having his congressional office staffed with young, attractive women. The film also shows how the partying causes a federal investigation into allegations of cocaine use by Wilson, conducted by then Federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani as part of a larger investigation into congressional misconduct. The investigation results in no charges against Wilson.

An imperialist friend and romantic interest, Joanne Herring, encourages Wilson to do more to help the Afghans, and persuades Wilson to visit the Pakistani leadership. The Pakistanis complain about the inadequate support of the U.S. to oppose the Soviets, and they insist that Wilson visit a major Pakistan-based Afghan refugee camp. Deeply moved by their misery and determination to fight, Wilson is frustrated by the regional CIA personnel's insistence on a low key approach against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Wilson returns home to lead an effort to substantially increase funding to the mujahideen.

As part of this effort, Wilson befriends the maverick CIA operative Gust Avrakotos and his understaffed Afghanistan group to find a better strategy, especially including a means to counter the Soviets' formidable gunship helicopter air support. As a result, Wilson's deft political bargaining for the necessary funding and Avrakotos' group's careful planning using those resources, such as supplying the guerrillas with FIM-92 Stinger missile launchers, turns the Soviet occupation into a deadly quagmire with their heavy fighting vehicles being destroyed at a crippling rate. The CIA's anti-communism budget evolves from $5 million to over $1 billion, startling several congressmen. This effort by Wilson ultimately evolves into a major portion of the U.S. foreign policy known as the Reagan Doctrine, under which the U.S. expanded assistance beyond just the mujahideen and began also supporting other anti-communist resistance movements around the world. Many now credit the policy with contributing to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union and global communism, bringing about the end of the Cold War.[2]

Wilson follows Avrakotos' guidance to seek support for post-Soviet occupation Afghanistan, but finds almost no enthusiasm in the U.S. government for even the modest measures he proposes. The film ends with Wilson receiving a major commendation for the support of the U.S. clandestine services, but his pride is tempered by his fears of what unintended consequences his secret efforts could yield in the future and the implications of U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Movie trivia

Writer's Trademark - Gilbert and Sullivan

During Gust's long rant about why he should get the Finnish job he says, "And I'm never ever sick at sea." In Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, the captain tells his crew the same thing although they are not convinced: "What never?", "No! Never!", "What never?", "Well, hardly ever!", "He's hardly ever sick at sea!"

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin similarly included references to the H.M.S. Pinafore in a second-season episode of The West Wing.

[edit] Release and reception

The film was originally set for release on December 25, 2007; on November 30, 2007, however, the timetable was moved up to December 21, 2007. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $9.6 million in 2,575 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #4 at the box office.[3] As of March 6, 2008, it has grossed a total of $113.5 million worldwide — $66.6 million in the United States and Canada and $46.8 million in other territories.[4]

Charlie Wilson's War received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of January 21, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 82% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 163 reviews.[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 39 reviews.[6]

[edit] Governmental criticism and praise

Some Reagan-era officials, including former Under Secretary of Defense Fred Ikle, have criticized components of the film. The Washington Times reported some have claimed the film wrongly promotes the notion that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and ultimately produced the September 11, 2001 attacks.[7] Other Reagan-era officials, however, have been more supportive of the film. Michael Johns, the former Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst and speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush, praised the film as "the first mass-appeal effort to reflect the most important lesson of America's Cold War victory: that the Reagan-led effort to support freedom fighters resisting Soviet oppression led successfully to the first major military defeat of the Soviet Union." "Sending the Red Army packing from Afghanistan," Johns wrote, "proved one of the single most important contributing factors in one of history's most profoundly positive and important developments."[8]

[edit] Connections to September 11

George Crile, author of Charlie Wilson's War, the book on which the film is based, 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. It is ironic that a man who had almost nothing to do with the victory over the Red Army, Osama bin Laden, would come to personify the power of the jihad."[9]

The progressive/liberal news website "AlterNet" released a critical article claiming that the film "toned down" ties to 9/11.[10] The article claims that Wilson believed Ahmad Shah Massoud to be a "Russian collaborator" and that the film falsely shows Massoud receiving the majority of the aid. AlterNet asserts that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was actually the primary recipient (about 40%), despite the fact that he was known to have killed Afghan civilians. Support for Hekmatyar is claimed to be attributable to the controversial U.S. decision by the CIA to permit Pakistan to distribute the aid (something which is acknowledged in the film).[11] They allege that these facts were included in an earlier script but later dropped from it.[12] The article also criticizes the film of catering to Pakistani views on Afghani tribalism, which they attribute largely to the real Charlie Wilson's former position as a Pakistani lobbyist.[13]

While the film depicts Wilson as an immediate advocate for supplying the mujahideen with Stinger missiles, a former Reagan administration official recalls that he and Wilson, while advocates for the mujahideen, were actually initially "lukewarm" on the idea of supplying these missiles. Their opinion changed after they discovered that rebels were successful in downing Soviet gunships with them.[14] As such, they were actually not supplied until the second Reagan administration term, in 1987, and their provision was mostly advocated by Reagan defense officials and influential conservatives.[15][16][17] Dates supplied on the film seem to reflect an accurate recounting of the provision of these missiles.

[edit] Status in Russia

In early February it became known that the film would not play in Russian theaters. The rights for the film were bought by Universal Pictures International (UPI) Russia. It was speculated that the film would not appear because of a certain point of view that depicted the USSR unfavorably. UPI Russia head Yevgeny Beginin denied that, saying, "We simply decided that the film would not make a profit." Reaction from Russian bloggers, who had seen the film on pirated DVDs, was negative. One wrote: "The whole film shows Russians, or rather Soviets, as brutal killers."[18][19]

[edit] Home video

The movie was released on DVD on April 22, 2008; a DVD version and a HD DVD/DVD combo version are available. The extras include a making of featurette and a "Who is Charlie Wilson?" featurette, which profiles the real Charlie Wilson and features interviews with him and with Tom Hanks, Joanne Herring, Aaron Sorkin, and Mike Nichols. The HD DVD/DVD combo version also include additional exclusive content.[20]

[edit] Historical context

Wilson has since recounted that, "I always, always, whenever a plane goes down, I always fear it is one of our missiles. Most of all I wanted to bloody the Red Army. I think the bloodying thereof had a great deal to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union."[21] He now surmises that some of the weapons probably wound up in the hands of the Taliban regime that took over and is now harboring Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on America. "I feel guilty about it," he said. "I really do." "Those things happen," Wilson said of wartime weapons that wind up in the wrong hands. "How are you going to defeat the Red Army without a gun? You can't blame the Marines for teaching Lee Harvey Oswald how to shoot." Wilson, who did not seek re-election to Congress in 1996 after serving 24 years, now believes he could have worked harder to steer Afghanistan away from the course that led it to today. "The part that I'll take to my grave with guilt is that . . . I didn't stay the course and stay there and push and drive the other members of Congress nuts pushing for a mini-Marshall Plan," he said. "And I let myself be frustrated and discouraged by the fact that (the Afghan) leadership was so fragmented that we were unable to do the things we needed to do, like clear the mines, like furnish them millions of tons of fertilizer to be able to replant the crops."

The interventionist policy of aiding anti-communist resistance forces in Afghanistan enjoyed considerable bipartisan support in the U.S. However, while Wilson was a Democrat, the policy's broader and highly controversial application around the world, in Angola, Cambodia, Nicaragua and other nations, was largely opposed by U.S. Democrats. Some have argued that the policy was mostly a creation of the conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, whose foreign policy experts visited these forces and advocated support for them. However it should be noted that both political parties have attempted to claim responsibility for the Soviet defeat and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. In either case, the policy was later embraced by Reagan administration foreign policy and defense officials, who escalated conflict with these Soviet-supported governments. Jimmy Carter, who had already served his term previous to Reagan, distanced himself from the policy's broader application and was a vocal opponent of U.S. aid to these "nation building" movements. Congressional Democrats also largely opposed the broader application of the Reagan Doctrine.[22]

Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski has stated that the U.S. effort to aid the mujahideen was preceded by an effort to draw the Soviets into a costly and presumably distractive Vietnam War-like conflict. In a 1998 interview with the French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."[23][24]

See also: Operation Cyclone

[edit] Awards and nominations

Nominations

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003, ISBN 0871138549.
  2. ^ 9/27/01 FILE STORY: 'Good-time' Charlie Wilson has regrets about Afghanistan
  3. ^ Charlie Wilson's War (2007) - Weekend Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-02.
  4. ^ Charlie Wilson's War (2007). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-05-02.
  5. ^ Charlie Wilson's War - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  6. ^ Charlie Wilson's War (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  7. ^ Charlie's Movie The Washington Times, December 21, 2007
  8. ^ "Charlie Wilson's War Was Really America's War," by Michael Johns, January 19, 2008.
  9. ^ Crile, George: "Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History". Atlantic Monthly Press
  10. ^ AlterNet: Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in 'Charlie Wilson's War'
  11. ^ YouTube - CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR - make that Charlie Wilson's Whopper
  12. ^ http://www.aboutjulia.com/site/script-charliewilsonswar.pdf
  13. ^ AlterNet: Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in 'Charlie Wilson's War'
  14. ^ Charlie's Movie The Washington Times, December 21, 2007
  15. ^ [1] Sageman, Marc Understanding Terror Networks, chapter 2, University of Pennsylvania Press, May 1, 2004
  16. ^ Did the U.S. "Create" Osama bin Laden?(2005-01-14). US Department of State. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
  17. ^ Whose War? Separating Fact from Fiction in 'Charlie Wilson's War'
  18. ^ BBC: A film not for everybody (in Russian)
  19. ^ 'Charlie' won't play in Russia Retrieved on April 11, 2008
  20. ^ Charlie Wilson's War. DVDactive. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  21. ^ 9/27/01 FILE STORY: 'Good-time' Charlie Wilson has regrets about Afghanistan
  22. ^ Rollback: Right Wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy, South End Press, 1989.
  23. ^ Actualité, Spécial islamisme
  24. ^ No Regrets: Carter, Brzezinski and the Muj
  25. ^ Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards for the Year Ended December 31, 2007. goldenglobes.org (2007-12-13). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Mike Nichols

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) • The Graduate (1967) • Catch-22 (1970) • Carnal Knowledge (1971) • The Day of the Dolphin (1973) • The Fortune (1975) • Gilda Live (1980) • Silkwood (1983) • Heartburn (1986) • Biloxi Blues (1988) • Working Girl (1988) • Postcards from the Edge (1990) • Regarding Henry (1991) • Wolf (1994) • The Birdcage (1996) • Primary Colors (1998) • What Planet Are You From? (2000) • Closer (2004) • Charlie Wilson's War (2007)