Charlie Wilson's War

Year: 2007

Writer: Aaron Sorkin

Director: Mike Nichols

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams.

Plot: 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.






Charlie Wilson's War  was  one of the movies that I originally saw at the cinema when it first came out, loved it and then promptly forgot about it. I rediscovered it a few months ago in the glory that is the HMV sale, where some real gems are often to be found. I watched it on Saturday night and remembered just how well written and acted this movie was. 


Written by Aaron Sorkin (the guy behind The Social Network) and directed by Mike Nichols (of Closer fame),This film tells the now well known story of how the US trained and armed resistance fighters in Afghanistan and aided them in defeating the Russians and bringing about the fall of communism in the East. But it focuses on the less well known story of who was actually behind this, an alcoholic congressman called Charlie Wilson. 


This film is a not only a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of US interference but it is also incredibly funny. Tom Hanks is as always brilliant and as he started in comedy in the 80s, it is nice to see him going back to his roots. Julie Roberts is enchanting, but it is Philip Seymour Hoffman who steals the movie by a mile. His turn as CIA renegade Gus Avrakotos who has no respect for anyone and has serious anger issues is genius! At points with him and Tom Hanks the movie almost veers in to screwball territory.  Check out one of his best scenes below.

Watching the events of this movie now and knowing what we do about September 11th and the war on terror, this movie seems strangely poignant. In particularly when Charlie Wilson tries to convince the US government that following the fall of the Soviet Union it is important that they invest in the education of the young Afghans to avoid ignorance and resentment and the government refuse. It is a timely reminder of what happens when a country interferes in the affairs of another, but then does not clean up their mess before they leave.


I give this movie 4 stars, so worth checking it out!!


"These things happened, they were glorious and they changed the world and then we fucked up the endgame." - Charlie Wilson