Movie Review: Charlie Wilson's War

I admit that the trailers didn't really pique my interest. The visual of a platinum Julia Roberts slinking out of a pool doesn't give the first clue as to what this movie is all about. Which is a shame, but I understand they didn't think people would go if they knew it was about...Afghanistan.

Charlie Wilson's War tells the story of a Congressman from Texas who takes his tarnished reputation as a Capitol Hill philanderer and remakes himself into a hero of democracy by fighting to obtain the funding necessary for the Afghan rebels to hold off the invading Russians during the 1980's.

What you get: strong performances. Tom Hanks is convincing in portraying the irony between his selfish and wayward behaviors and his noble intentions toward the rebels, and old friends. Julia Roberts portrays a woman of means who sees what the government does not--that the Russians aren't after Afghanistan. They're after the Perisan Gulf (think Von Schlieffen Plan).

What you don't get: the whole story. It can't be that simple to appropriate millions of dollars from Congress--I'm certain that parts of the story were simplified so that viewers wouldn't get bogged down in the political process. Being me, I wouldn't have minded that part of the story, but I can see how it wouldn't sell tickets.

Bottom line: if you want to know the mindset and practice of the United States in other areas of the world--ie, how we blew it and continue to blow it, see this movie. Charlie is indeed a hero, but the government that backed him deserts him before the end game. Abandoning the Afghans once the Russians roll out is a terrible mistake that, historically, has been repeated by the US in many areas of the world for more than a century. It's doubly sad when you consider how different our situation in that neck of the woods could be had we just finished what we started. And then consider what we should do in Iraq.