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"…Three Years Learning Finnish!" – Charlie
Wilson's War on BLU RAY
It's 6 April 1980 and Charles Nesbitt Wilson is pruning in
the bubbling water of a Las Vegas Hotel Jacuzzi with some naked strippers,
cocaine and glasses of champagne (standard procedure for an American
Congressmen at the time). But something else other than wet areolas catches
Charlie's eagle eye. Up on the mounted television set behind the bar is an unshaven
Dan Rather of CBS Evening News reporting from the deserts of Afghanistan. A
local woman who speaks English tells a turbaned Dan that "America is
asleep..." and that if the Russians invade her country - the Gulf is next
- and after that - the USA itself. Charlie (Tom Hanks) politely declines an
offer to make a tasteful TV Movie with Playboy of the Month and her naked agent
for $29,000 and bids them all farewell...
Back at his office in Texas (which oddly enough is peopled
with three large-chested women sporting buttons in their blouses that can't
seem to be closed) - Charlie makes enquiries with his assistant Bonnie (Amy
McAdams) into the covert ops budget for the dirt-country in the Middle East
with no real political friends (America included). He doesn't like what he
hears and as a Congressman for the House of Representatives - he determines to
change all that nonsense by doubling its budget from five million dollars to
ten. And so it begins...
Along the way Charlie meets with the 6th wealthiest woman in
Texas - the wildly patriotic and determined sexpot Joanne Herring (a stunning
Julia Roberts eating up a proper role) and a Greek CIA operative Gust Avrakotos
(another genius portrayal from the greatly missed Philip Seymour Hoffman) who
has anger issues with his bosses and hasn't been killed across 4 continents in
24 years by people who know how to (dialogue above). So far so funny...
But then it all changes when Charlie visits Afghanistan
itself - and sees up close and personal what the Russian war machine is doing
to defenceless Muslims. Men are being stacked in human piles and then run over
by tanks as their wives are made to watch - children are dismembered with toy
mines - and starving people rush grain trucks ripping open sacks in
desperation. And as he walks up a hill and looks back at a Biblical scene of
refugee tents with huge expanses of humanity being hammered by bullyboys -
Charlie sheds a tear. And then a steely look enters his angry gaze...
What makes "Charlie Wilson's War" so good is a trio
of things - the alarming and often ridiculous nature of this true modern-war
story - a wickedly funny and yet touching Aaron Sorkin script - and a huge
posse of Grade-A actors capable of making you chuckle one moment then shed a
tear the next. The three principal leads are exceptional - especially Hanks and
Hoffman - but there's also quality support from Emily Blunt, Om Puri, John
Slattery, Ned Beatty, Ken Stott and Peter Gerety in small but significant
roles.
The characters they portray may at times seem utterly
ridiculous, meddlesome and even arrogant - but their convictions and above all
their love of democracy and freedom knows no bounds. And anything that
threatens that (i.e.: murderous Russians slaughtering easy pickings like
peasants with pitchforks and old rifles) - is going to get short shift - and
high-tech weaponry if that doesn't work.
The problem with all this 'movie entertainment' is that it
clouds an obvious and stinging question - why did the CIA arm the Afghans? To
give them their country back - or out of
pure self-interest - they get to defeat the Soviets using another country and
another people to do it? The film doesn't shirk this thorn to its credit -
offering up the plausible response that it was probably a bit of both. And it
also points out that in the mid Nineties the American Government lost interest
once the war was won and shamefully left with the goal achieved but the
'people' stranded - not investing - not rebuilding - and thereby giving rise to
massive Islamic hated towards the West - which of course has had global
consequences ever since.
The BLU RAY picture quality is gorgeous throughout - a major
production - and filmed in Full Aspect (1.85:1)
- you get that punch of quality across the whole screen and in every
shot. Audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French, Italian, German, Spanish,
Portuguese and Latin American Spanish Surround 5.1. Subtitles are in English
SDH, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian,
Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Traditional Mandarin.
Directed by Mike Nichols and adapted from George Crile's
book by Aaron Sorkin - "Charlie Wilson's War" seems slight at first -
but then bites into your heart - and leaves you mightily impressed.
Did Texas Mascara and a Congressman with etched leather
boots (elected to the Ethics Committee when he was clearly a dubious choice for
the job) actually bring the Soviet Empire to its knees and defeat Communism? Check
out this superb movie and find out...
