...while theater-goers may have given the film a slight snub, it is worthwhile experiencing on DVD.
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Hollywood is always looking for a new and interesting project for actor Tom Hanks. He is one of the more bankable actors in the history of Tinseltown and nearly every project in which Hanks has been involved in has grossed north of one hundred million dollars. He is a true golden goose and Hanks has taken a wide range of roles and succeeded. The actor earned Oscar awards for his performances in "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump." He also nominated for "Big," "Saving Private Ryan" and "Cast Away." His greatest success in box office returns was his performance in the film "Forrest Gump" and only "Splash" earned less than $100 million worldwide. That was until "Charlie Wilson´s War" became the difficult project that broke his long running streak of blockbuster success.
"Charlie Wilson´s War" could be called a difficult project, but its lukewarm reception from theater goers could be linked to a number of reasons. For starters, the film is a political drama that was marketed as a comedy. A quote on the box packaging goes as far as quoting Roger Ebert as stating the film was "Wickedly Funny." Unfortunately, the film contains a few humorous moments, but it is hardly a comedy. A second reason could be the underlying themes involving the Afghanistan War and the events of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that felled the World Trade Center. These events are still relatively fresh in the American conscience and the public may not be fully prepared for a picture that dramatizes or pokes light at events leading up to these events.
The story itself finds Tom Hanks portraying Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and the film begins with the character partaking in a little hot tub party with a few topless females. This is a situation unfamiliar to fans of Hanks and shedding his typical clean image could be another reason the film struggled to find a larger audience. "Charlie Wilson´s War" showcases Hanks as a boozing, womanizer of a Congressman who also dabbled in some illegal substances. This is by far the most against-the-grain role for the lovable actor and I found myself having a little trouble buying into Hanks´ portrayal of a man so far away from our familiarity with his usual performances. Don´t get me wrong, Tom Hanks doesn´t fail in his performance, but we´ve spent too much time with Hanks as a man with little or no moral deficiencies.
As the plot moves along, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) engages in adulterous sex with Wilson and convinces him to help her in her plight of aiding the Afghani people who have been invaded with the Soviet Union. Herring is an incredibly wealthy woman who was a former beauty queen and is very influential in more ways than one. She is anti-communist and after their alcohol-supported fling, Herring has Wilson agree to meet with the Pakistani leader, President Zia-Ul-Haq (Om Puri). The Pakistani ruler ridicules Wilson for doubling the budget to ten million dollars, which is an absurd sum of money and will provide no support for the Afghani refugees on Pakistani soil. To prove his point, Zia-Ul-Haq has Wilson travel to one of the gigantic refugee camps to see why more funding is provided.
His return to America has Wilson demand to talk to a CIA department head, but his request is brushed aside and an outcast CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is sent to discuss matters of providing military support to the Afghani rebels. Gust had been denied a promotion at his previous post and in anger he broke all of the windows of his supervisor´s office and found himself at a dead-end post in the CIA. Fortunately, the meeting between Gust and Charlie finds the two men passionate about killing Russians and providing much needed support to the Afghani freedom fighters called the mujhideen. Wilson is a well-liked man and is able to talk Congressman Doc Long (Ned Beatty) into supporting his cause and more than two billion dollars is raised by Wilson and Avrakotos to arm the Afghani resistance with Stinger missiles and other weapons to thwart the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
In the end, Tom Hanks portrays another hero, although Charlie Wilson is not the typical personality for the well-loved Hanks to assume. The real life Charlie Wilson has given credit to the story and the actors for their job of bringing his heroic deed to the big screen and Wilson has especially been warm to the job done by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I do agree that Hoffman is incredible in the film and the actor continues to impress with his character portrayals. Returning to the topic of Tom Hanks, the bankable star may not have garnered the attention and box office returns that have become routine, but Hanks is solid as the boozing womanizer, who happens to have a deep conscience towards the plight of the Afghani people. Hanks deserves some praise for breaking the mold and trying something different.
The rest of the film constitutes a fairly good production. While I am usually the first person to stand up and declare my distaste for anything featuring Julia Roberts, the actress seems adept at portraying a high strung and rich woman who uses sex to push her own agenda. I had no problems with Roberts in this film. The previously mentioned praise received by Philip Seymour Hoffman is well deserved. Aaron Sorkin has penned a good screenplay that does deviate some from the true historical occurrences of the story, but he remains faithful to the characters and keeps the political drama and slower moments moving along rather nicely. All of this is orchestrated masterfully by director Mike Nichols, who is best remembered for directing the 1967 classic "The Graduate."
Earlier in this review I mentioned that the film has an underlying theme regarding the Afghanistan War and the attack on the World Trade Center. While "Charlie Wilson´s War" does not explicitly state its message, a final quote regarding Wilson´s beliefs towards the botched ´End Game´ raises a number of questions regarding the arming of the Taliban and setting the state for the anarchy that would later result in the attacks against the United States. Wilson has been very vocal and critical about the poor efforts by the United States to properly rebuild Afghanistan after the Russian occupation ended and much has been said that our nation´s lack of attention in this area has been the seed to what has occurred since. I´m not going to delve any deeper into this argument, but it does exist and the film ever so briefly makes mention of the underling themes of what actually happened.
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