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Charlie Wilson’s War

Friday May 23rd 2008, 4:00 am
Filed under: cinema

Charlie Wilson’s War, the opening credits proudly boast, is based on true events. This in indeed true, though at times you’d hardly know it. The movie charts the endevours of whisky-swilling, womanizing, Democrat Texan congressman Charlie Wilson to arm the Afghanistan militia and repel the Soviet invasion of the 1980s.

With thanks to recent events, even those too young to remember first-hand are familiar with the main facts of this story. And yet still at times, it can be very difficult to swallow that this was a true story. This is in part due to the titular character, who comes across as at once ignorant and savvy, and who seemingly throws himself at complex causes earnestly but also almost with gay abandon. As such, the character doesn’t seem very grounded in reality.

The supporting characters are similarly a patchwork of oddballs, ranging from a bleeding-heart wealthy constituent pulling the strings on an international level to an abrasive CIA agent with obvious anger management issues, played superbly by Philip Seymour Hoffman. These kooky characters,?coupled with equally unnatural but witty dialogue give the film an almost Wes Anderson feel, and go some way to removing any sense of realism from proceedings.

Other issues concern the plot itself. While the world today is still reeling from the repercussions of arming the Mujahideen, the story is almost entirely myopic. Charlie Wilson comes across as a hero for liberating Afghanistan, while the considerable fallout is relegated to a pre-credit post script.

This economy of facts, coupled with the off-kilter ambience, renders Charlie Wilson’s War’s impact as a history lesson very weak. As a piece of entertainment however, you could do a lot worse than this enjoyable old yarn.

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