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Francis Powell Lambastes Charlie Wilson's War

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

A man is being given a hero’s accolades for his efforts in a war. He receives rich applause. With such an opening to a film, the film and principle character has much to live up to, so as to assume the mantle of a hero. The disappointment by the end is palpable. Even the title of the film seems like a fraud. This film is based on a true story, maybe the truth story is lost somewhere by the insipid way it is told. The story to my mind would make decent a TV mini drama, but it lacks a lot as to a film. Maybe the ingredients for a good film are there, but are criminally unexploited.

Any film with Tom Hanks is going to make you stand up and pay attention. His acting mastery can hold together any impotent, poorly scripted and/or badly executed film. All the strings have to be pulled on this film, and even Hanks can’t wield the magic. Hanks is not the only star in this film however, we also find Julie Roberts in an unlikely and unconvincing role. For me she is as believable as false eye lashes or her peroxide dyed hair. She is portraying a staunchly anti-communist, filthy rich Texan, but I could not fathom her motivation. It is she who sends Charlie Wilson (Hanks) on a mission to equip the Afghan army with the weapons they need to defeat the Russian army. Of course the two film super stars are given ample scope to flirt, but there is no depth to the relationship. I was somewhat reminded of Roberts looking like a Cruella de Ville, without the black streak. The film could trade off tacky, with vulgar characters. The Wilson character is a bit on the maverick side, he appears a clumsy amateur politician; indeed the American foreign policy of these times seems to be dabbled in with an ill-conceived ineptitude. There are some witty lines, but the film meanders from the whimsical to the serious, making you wonder what is the director trying to impress on you. Bitter sweet films work well, but this seems bitter tacky, does this work, I am not so sure.

Wilson, a Democratic Texas Congressman, surrounds himself with a motley crew of bimbo like woman, who are party to his demeanours and aware he has the famed Federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani (who does not appear in this film) on his tail, as he is alleged to have taken cocaine. The film, after the scene of him being shown as a hero, shows him in a Jacuzzi with a bevy of bimbos. He’s a man who seems carefree about being found in an "uncompromising" position.

He loves his women and is unconcerned about their background or any damage that might be incurred politically. Enter the Julie Roberts character, and a less than sizzling love scene during a party. She convinces him to go to Pakistan, where clumsily talks to the President, who puts him right on the Afghan army who are being slaughtered by their Russian oppressors, particularly by helicopters that wreak havoc on the ground. If there is a brief moving part to the film, it is when Wilson goes to a seemingly endless refugee camp and encounters children, most of whom are victims of landmine explosions.

The film shifts back in this part and touches on a tragic subject. We learn the Americans have given paltry amounts of money to the mujahedeen, a rag tag army fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Everything from the U.S. has to be covert, as they don’t want it to be known they are extending the cold war. The nub of the film, is that Wilson receives the funding (although he does not see any action) dramatically increased to take the war to the Russians, with the help of the wacky volatile Gust Avrakotos, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, an obviously accomplished actor. Is he a hero? I am sure, doubtlessly some of the money he generated no doubt landed gleefully into the hands of some shady arms dealers. The Afghans looked exalted with their new ammunition, which have the accuracy and ability to down a helicopter. Apart from aiming into the ground, even the most inept of military men could master such weaponry, heat guided and deadly. Real footage is shown to show the helicopters falling from the sky as cheers ring around the mujahedeen.

What is this film striving for, a tongue in cheek film about the botched American policy of the times and some of the tainted, vulgar characters shaping American policy in an amateurish hap hazard way? I walked out confused and disappointed. There is a footnote to this story. The Mujahedeen turned on their provider and benefactors and in another decade, it was not the Russians fighting off the dogged Mujahedeen, but the Americans combating Osama Bin Laden and his followers.