Charlie Wilson's War [2007] - DVD (Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ned Beatty - Dir: Mike Nichols)

Overlooked in the end at the Academy Awards, and not ratcheting up the box office you'd perhaps expect of a Tom Hanks movie, Charlie Wilson's War is nonetheless a challenging, entertaining and underappreciated film, that deserves to find a bigger audience on DVD.

Starring Hanks in the title role, the strength of Charlie Wilson's War is in some talented people doing what they do best. Hanks eases into his part, as the Texas congressman who uses his extensive contacts book and unorthodox nature (which is putting it mildly) to initiate and wage a secret war. Alongside him is Julia Roberts on fine form in a small part, and the excellent Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is at the heart of the film's best, and funniest, moments.

Gluing Charlie Wilson's War together is an assured turn behind the camera from veteran director Mike Nichols. Nichols, still best known for The Graduate, is confident enough to let the comedy in a deathly serious story play out, while not shirking the drama either. It's a tender balancing act, that only flusters a little near the end.

It's not a perfect film, and the tone may be a little uneasy for some. But Charlie Wilson's War is, nonetheless, a very strong piece of American cinema, that has questions to ask, and manages to entertain at the same time. Well worth discovering. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews of Charlie Wilson's War [2007]

Pete

29th November 2008

Uncinematic story competently but blandly filmed
The film is not very good. It is simply not a very cinematic story, and it has not been dramatically filmed. It's just a bunch of people talking about funding a secret war, but with the intricacies of the politics and deceptions simplified to the point of rendering everything bland and dull.

An example: Hanks tells the President of Pakistan that he has probably broken the Logan Act in his dealings. The President asks what this is, Hanks does not explain. So most of the audience are left in the dark. As I have read the book I know that the Logan Act states that it is treason for anyone apart from the President of America to conduct foreign policy (ie. only the President can start a war, which is pretty much what Charlie Wilson has done by joining a war America is not fighting). If this was explained in the movie then it would have been dramatic and interesting, but instead it's brushed under the carpet rendering the scene dull. And don't get me started on how stinger missiles suddenly turn up in Afghanistan all of a sudden (in the book it takes about 300 pages of pleading and arguing before the government allowed them to be deployed).

The only good thing about the film are two scenes involving Philip Seymour Hoffman. The first scene where he has an argument with his boss and the scene where he meets Hanks for the first time. The rest of the film is a boring dud. I even fast-forwarded a few sequences as I knew what was happening and couldn't be bothered sitting through these predictable scenes.

I have read the book (5 stars) and I can say that it is much better than the film. I would, without any hesitation, recommend reading that instead of watching this.

NOTE: There is a patronising Aids documentary on the front of the disc that you cannot skip. I have found that it can be bypassed by selecting Dansk (Danish?) on the language select screen to go straight to the main menu, you'll just have to switch off the subtitles when the film starts.

Chris Wood
UK
4th November 2008

Surprisingly good
I didn't think this would be anywhere near as enjoyable as it is. I really liked it, and found it to be surprisingly good.

David Lewis
London, England
1st November 2008

Don't buy if you want to know what really happened
It's not a bad film as pure entertainment but, naturally, it depicts Americans as good (though flawed) and Russians as essentially evil. I should add that I'm no fan of the appalling Soviet Empire but we now know that, far from saving Afghanistan from Russia, the US government (and the CIA) provoked the Russian invasion as part of their Cold War strategy. Whether or not you think this policy was worthwhile in harming the Soviet Empire, the fact remains that Charlie Wilson's War totally ignores the real story. This from a 1998 interview (in a French publication) with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor:

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

speedbird2
Hampshire, UK
23rd October 2008

Surprisingly interesting movie!
Worth watching just for Hoffman's character, who manages to consistently upstage the two heavyweight leads of Hanks and Roberts. This guy is completely in the spirit and period of the movie and makes the other two look like they're hamming it up something rotten.

I initially rented this and assumed the unskippable advert was only on the rental copy - bit of a shameful oversight if it's on the bought version, I think.

barnie884
Netherlands
23rd October 2008

Good but could have been better
I have to agree with the reviews on here, this film covers a very touchy subject and gives you an insight into American politics. A floored but good congressman (Hanks) stumbles into a war that he didn't know that much about, upon finding out the true story dedicates his career with the help of a wealthy texas woman (Roberts) to righting the injustice, and in steps another floored but honest character (Hoffman). However a 90 minute movie on such a subject when no-one would blink if it were 2 hours doesn't do it justice. I feel if they had gone a bit further it would have been so much better.........