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
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
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