Review of Charlie Wilson's War (2007) by Esteban G — 28 Dec 2011

This is one of the best political comedies I have seen with great one-liners coming from Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffmann-s characters. This is a well constructed film by director Mike Nichols but I think the credit has to be given to Aaron Sorkin for his witty script and the performances given by all of the actors.

This is an intelligent and entertaining film (and must I add a true story) about the life of the highly liberal Democratic Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks, and how he manages to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan during the Cold War by raising the CIA funds from a miserable 5 million to one billion for the Afghan cause.

Of course Charlie Wilson could not have done this alone; he had the help from a right-wing millionaire socialite named Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who hates communists and is the one who introduces the issue to Charlie, and from Gust Avrakatos-A CIA agent who is eager to help with Afghan cause.

This is the incredible story of how these three people managed to single-handedly defeat the Russians by bringing together countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Israel (yes I said Pakistan and Israel).

But this is not simply a biographical picture: the film has an excellent and funny script and it has great performances from Hoffman and Hanks which make the film all the more enjoyable. There are very few films like these made nowadays and I dont know why it was ovelooked at the Oscars.