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| Director: Mike Nichols
Actors: Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Terry Bozeman
Studio: NBC Universal
This item is no longer available
Rating:  127 reviews
Sales Rank: 3748
Genre: Drama - Biographical
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 103 Minutes
ASIN: B001AQSVPE
Theatrical Release Date: December 21, 2007
Release Date: October 1, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 127
an old-fashioned star vehicle January 8, 2008
Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
In 1980, Charlie Wilson was an obscure Texas congressman, more notable for his folksy manner and serial womanizing than for any legislative accomplishments. Until, that is, he became actively involved in getting Congress to covertly fund some badly needed weapon shipments to the Afghani freedom fighters - also known as the Mujahadim - in their battle against the Soviet invaders. It was these arms, particularly the anti-aircraft guns, that helped to turn the tide of the war in the Afghanis' favor and made them the only force in history to defeat the Soviet army. Wilson was greatly inspired by a wealthy, right-wing socialite by the name of Joanne Herring who took up the Afghani's cause almost as a personal crusade.
Though glitzy and superficial at times, Mike Nichols' "Charlie Wilson's War," based on the book by George Crile, is a generally entertaining romp thanks to the performances of its mega-watt stars, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and to the breezy, crackling dialogue by scenarist Aaron Sorkin, of TV's "West Wing" fame. Hanks has rarely seemed as confident and commanding in a role as he is here, and Roberts clearly relishes playing a woman who is both icily elegant and strangely vulnerable at one and the same time. In their sizzling scenes together, the two old pros conjure up memories of some of the great screen couples of the past like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Myrna Loy and William Powell who knew what it meant to be movie stars and could convey that larger-than-life quality on screen.
These virtues more than compensate for the film's tendency to oversimplify the political and historical issues of the times and for a somewhat disjointed quality in the story's structure. Despite the generally light-hearted tone of the piece, the movie ends on an admirably sober note, showing how what was initially seen as a triumph for American foreign policy might in actuality have been the catalyst for the events that would culminate in 9/11 (the sound of an airliner roaring overhead near the end of the film seems to foreshadow that seminal event).
In contrast to some of the year's earlier, more heavy-handed (yet also more substantive) political dramas, "Charlie Wilson's War" is one social studies lesson that goes down easy - though it should be noted that "War," with its big-name stars, lighter tone, and safer, less topical subject matter, earns fewer points for audacity and courage than those others do.
 Should have been re-scripted and called "Ronald Reagan's War" January 23, 2008
J. DeMeo (Ashland, OR USA)
8 out of 19 found this review helpful
Charlie Wilson was an important player in helping to rid Afghanistan of the Soviets, but history shows it was Ronald Reagan and his team, Bill Casey in the CIA, etc., who were the constant and most powerful organizing agents to send the missiles to shoot down Soviet helicopters, and who established policy directives to make the Soviets pay a high price for their invasion and barbarism in Afghanistan -- which was but one facet of the COMINTERN's push for world domination, of the Cold War. The movie doesn't go into this aspect, but that's typical Hollywood leftism, not to mention the 100 million victims of communist atrocity during the 20th Century. A good summary article on this is "Hollywood's Sins of Omission" By: Dr. Paul Kengor, which can easily be found on internet. Hollywood typically screws up history (just look at the seditious conduct of many top stars), either trying to make the Americans the bad-guys of history and current events, twisting history to make a celebrity star appear more heroic by making his enemy more villainous (as in Mel Gibson's "The Patriot", where a British officer was falsely tarnished as a mass-murderer of civilians), Speilberg's inserting the obligatory American soldier machine-gunning captured German prisoners at Normandy (the reverse happened many times, in fact), or outright falsely claiming Americans accomplished things -- as with the rescuing of the Enigma machine from a captured Nazi U-boat -- which actually was an heroic mission pulled off by the British. The lesson is, don't trust your history or current-events to Hollywood and the glamor-crowd.
 For Leftists Only August 7, 2008
Bernard Chapin (CHICAGO! USA)
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
I have to honestly say this is one of the most politically biased films I've ever seen. As a conservative, its angle was so slanted that it managed to ruin its entertainment value entirely. Its writer, Aaron Sorkin, is also the author of "The West Wing" which will not surprise anyone once the credits play. The movie begins with Charlie Wilson saying, "That John Murtha is as clean as my mother's floor" in regards to an alleged ethics violations and goes downhill from there. Rudi Giuliani also gets dragged into the muck and his name comes up as a prosecutor trying to keep the protagonist down in a drug investigation (for which he was guilty). Wilson, just as with the majority of his leftist peers, thinks that with individual action the means always justify the ends. He bragged of first falling in love with his country after he manipulated a group of black voters to go to the polls and reject a guy who once killed his dog. As it always is with these people, the personal is political and war is permanently declared on reason.
All sorts of contemporary political issues are alluded to here such as the ACLU trying to ban Christian displays in public spaces. Predictably, Tom Hanks's Congressman Wilson parrots today's leftist talking points. He informs a preacher that he should move his nativity scene down the road to a church. Then he seduces (or is seduced?) by the preacher's daughter. We find that she's sexually fast and smokes dope--but of course! Yawn, are there any other kinds of preacher's daughters to be found in Hollywood films? The message is all the same politically correct counter-cultural dreck by which the left has been undermining this nation for forty years. Most offensive of all, was that of Julia Roberts being a member of the Minute Women, which automatically made her a right-wing crank as if being opposed to communism was somehow more of a sin than advocating for the totalitarian suppression of individual rights and the concomitant extermination of 100 million souls over the course of the last century. The film's abhorrent attempt to indoctrinate spoiled fine performances by Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Frankly, I can't help but wonder why Michael Moore didn't direct this one.
Extremely disappointing May 4, 2008
Anna (MN, Minneapolis)
7 out of 16 found this review helpful
I can't understand how can anybody take this movie seriously. It is such a cliche, as well as shallow, pseudo-patriotic, chauvinistic and syrupy. Historical and technical facts are shamelessly distorted. I always liked and respected all the great actors that act here: Roberts, Hanks and Hoffman, it is disturbing to see them play here.
 Some Heavy Artillery Here December 22, 2007
H. F. Corbin (ATLANTA, GA USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In theatres just in time for the Christmas season and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations "Charlie Wilson's War" is armed with some heavy artillery with Oscar winners all over the place including director Mike Nichols and actors Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The screenplay is by Aaron Sorkin of " The West Wing" fame that is based on the book by George Crile about Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson's covert efforts in the 1980's to aid the Afghan mujahaideen's fight against the Russians. Wilson was successful in getting Congressional subcommittees to increase funding for the war from five million dollars to one billion before the Russians were run out of Afghanistan.
The acting here is first class. Hanks plays the happy-go-lucky Charlie Wilson who likes strippers and parties but is a patriot at heart. With his braces and cowboy boots, but more importantly, his sensitive eyes and facial expressions he becomes the character he portrays and is totally believable, even if you know nothing about Wilson himself, who was a consultant on the movie and recently underwent a successful heart transplant. Roberts with a lot of blonde hair is Joanne Herring, a Texas socialite, who hates communists and sometimes sleeps with Wilson. Being a proper Georgia girl and not wanting to bring her daddy to public shame she dons a bikini for this film but she's not about to do a nude scene. Hanks picks up the slack, however, as he appears in the altogether with strippers early on in the film. Philip Seymour Hoffman as a CIA agent is over the top. It is obvious that he can do anything since this role is a far cry from his Oscar winning role recently as the wincing Truman Capote.
While the actors play this movie for laughs-- and there are plenty of them-- underneath the parties and bubble and hilarity, this film is as serious as stretch marks and scarier than watching the evening news. Wilson's whole endeavor, however, never made the news and raises the question that haunts many of us: what similar events may be being carried out by a few members of those who govern us and how long will it take to be uncovered, if ever?
This movie is not to be missed.
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