Charlie Wilson 's War (2007) review

Day before yesterday I watched a movie directed by late Mike Nicholas ( The Graduate) named "Charlie Wilson's War"  which is based on true story.

In 1979, USA was still reeling from loss in Vietnam in 1975 and facing a hostage crisis in Iran, which made it clear that USA was losing in Cold War. Détente with China in 1972 did not help either. Meanwhile, in same time, Afghanistan was invaded by USA 's biggest enemy ,USSR . Still angry  with USSR , USA wanted to help Afghanistanis to defeat the Russians, but at same time did not to want to send it's army after loss in Vietnam. So USA government launched "Operation Cyclone" as a response, in which weapons, money and CIA training was supplied by USA.

This task was given to Charlie Wilson, A Texan Senator who was also famous for his playboy lifestyle.

Here Charlie Wilson is played by Tom Hanks. Julia Roberts plays Joan Herring, a Texan deeply religious socialite who force Charlie to join "Operation Cyclone". Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Gust Avrakatos, a CIA official. Even though big stars like Emily Blunt and Amy Adams are present here, they do not really matter here.

This movie is written by Aaron Sorkin. Now I know it may not come as surprise because this movie is a political movie, but you will be surprised to notice that the characters do not talk like Aaron Sorkin character. I mean Charlie is a playboy, Joan is a socialite and Gust is profane. A lot may have to do with the fact that they were real people. Or maybe Aaron this time did not want to write character in a typical way ?

For a subject that is bit heavy, the movie deals it very lightly in a very tasteful manner. To be fair it was only way to deal with this story. If it was dealt in a straight manner, it would have been quite boring. I mean there is not really lot of action here. Sure, there are some Afghanistanis exploding helicopter but it is not exactly Rambo 3.  This is more of talky movie as expected by Aaron Sorkin.

This is a great movie for history buff and Tom Hanks fan

The Forgotten Heroes

9/11 attacks  was devastating not only for USA , but for whole world. World would not be same again.There was sadness everywhere. People were ready to change to combat terrorism. 

2 days after 9/11 attack, Tomas Young,a patriot enlisted in army to combat terrorism. He was just 22.


On April 4, 2004, five days after being sent to Iraq, Young was shot while riding in an open, unarmored truck during an ambush staged by rebels in Sadr City. One of the bullets pierced his spine and left him paralyzed from the chest down.
He returned home to Kansas City, Missouri and joined the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He later became a public critic of the Iraq War.

In 2007, a documentary called Body Of war was released, which showed us about life of Tomas Young as a war veteran and anti-war activist. It received a lot of accolades.


In 2008, however, Young took a turn for the worst with a pulmonary embolism and an anoxic brain injury that impaired his speech and expanded his paralysis to his arms. He's since undergone numerous painful surgeries, including the removal of his colon, to deal with emerging medical problems. 
In February 2013, he decided not to take supplement anymore that were keeping him alive. That same year he released a video called "The Last Letter"

In 2014, he lost his life. He had a wife and mother.

I am telling you this story, because of negligence we show towards veteran. Not only they have to suffer PTSD, but they do not have enough money to pay for their medical bills. On top of that, people call them bad names. We need to be responsible for men and women who fight for us. They take care of us during war, we should take care of them after war.