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What it's about:
The 1980s American congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) was best known for his way with beautiful ladies and hard drugs, and is probably best remembered for his role in the largest covert operation in America's history. With the help of a very wealthy and influential woman (Julia Roberts) and a seedy CIA agent (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Wilson was able to secure American funding and arms for Afghanistan to eradicate Russian assailants from their land.
What we thought of it:
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in a lavish 1980s film, with the hair, the clothes, the high life and those strange Texan accents – you can't get any better than that.
The era of power dressing, soap operas and that silly little battle of the minds – The Cold War – come across beautifully on screen. The wit and silky charm in the dialogue engages you immediately, while Hanks seems to get the fundamental aspects of Charlie Wilson's character down to a T – his ability to avoid trouble despite his bad habits, his love for the underdog, his womanising ways, his dependence on whiskey on the rocks and his persuasive talents.
But the film has flaws. Firstly, nothing concretely romantic comes of the relationship between Hanks and Roberts, despite hints towards such an ending. The second and more serious problem is that Charlie Wilson's War is a propagandist film. It tells the story of The Cold War from an exclusively Western angle, with no attempt made to show the communist viewpoint. The Russians are explicitly demonised with their only screen-time a scene in which two Russian air-force fighters chat about their many women as they kill Afghan women and children below.
Problematic and biased, but beautifully made, Charlie Wilson's War shows how much one person can achieve – but any intelligent and informed viewer will also be uncomfortably aware of the terrible long term consequences of any war, especially one of an ideological nature.
- Natalie Sineke
Get published on Channel24. Send your movie reviews to PublishMe@sa.24.com. Read more about getting published on Channel24 here.
The 1980s American congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) was best known for his way with beautiful ladies and hard drugs, and is probably best remembered for his role in the largest covert operation in America's history. With the help of a very wealthy and influential woman (Julia Roberts) and a seedy CIA agent (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Wilson was able to secure American funding and arms for Afghanistan to eradicate Russian assailants from their land.
What we thought of it:
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in a lavish 1980s film, with the hair, the clothes, the high life and those strange Texan accents – you can't get any better than that.
The era of power dressing, soap operas and that silly little battle of the minds – The Cold War – come across beautifully on screen. The wit and silky charm in the dialogue engages you immediately, while Hanks seems to get the fundamental aspects of Charlie Wilson's character down to a T – his ability to avoid trouble despite his bad habits, his love for the underdog, his womanising ways, his dependence on whiskey on the rocks and his persuasive talents.
But the film has flaws. Firstly, nothing concretely romantic comes of the relationship between Hanks and Roberts, despite hints towards such an ending. The second and more serious problem is that Charlie Wilson's War is a propagandist film. It tells the story of The Cold War from an exclusively Western angle, with no attempt made to show the communist viewpoint. The Russians are explicitly demonised with their only screen-time a scene in which two Russian air-force fighters chat about their many women as they kill Afghan women and children below.
Problematic and biased, but beautifully made, Charlie Wilson's War shows how much one person can achieve – but any intelligent and informed viewer will also be uncomfortably aware of the terrible long term consequences of any war, especially one of an ideological nature.
- Natalie Sineke
Get published on Channel24. Send your movie reviews to PublishMe@sa.24.com. Read more about getting published on Channel24 here.
