This year we have had a slew of movies about the current situation in the middle east. I have only seen one of them, 'In the Valley of Elah." but there was also 'Redacted, 'Lions for Lambs,' 'Rendition,' and 'The Kite Runner.' All of these movie garnered minor praise and little box office. The Kite Runner being the exception, getting good praise but still no box office. Based on my viewing of 'In The Valley of Elah' I don't think it was because people just didn't want see movies about the war. These movies, made in the midst of the war just weren't that good. They talked in circles and lacked focus. We should keep in mind that the best war movies (Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan) were made many years after the war. Those years are required, I think, to give the story much needed clarity. There is something called the fog of war. If we are to produce a great movie about the Iraq war, I believe it won't be coming to theaters any time soon. For that reason 'Charlie Wilson's War' which takes place in the late 1980's is probably the most informative movie about the current war than all the otherwise mentioned movies in this review. It provides a clear background to how the situation got so screwed up in the first place.
Charlie Wilson's War is about the American response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and by American I mean Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a really rich reactionary Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), and about four guys from the CIA (Headed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman). This small group of people managed to get 1 billion dollars in military aid to the Afghanis via Pakistan, Egypt, and Israel. How they did it constitutes this very detailed and specific movie.
It can be offputting sometimes to recognize that the people portrayed on the movie screen are more intelligent, powerful, richer, and better looking than yourself. Sometimes as I watched this movie I felt out of touch and stupid. Everyone in this movie is at least five to ten times more experienced in everything than I am, they go places I haven't been and they have the balls to do shit I wouldn't imagine. That isn't the movie being egotistical, it's just the story being true to itself. Only extraordinary people could pull this off, and in real life it was pulled off by extraordinary people. Aaron Sorkin, a very gifted screenwriter, does a splendid job of writing a very intelligent and funny script.
Hanks and Roberts are very good as always but Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives the best performance I think. I have seen this guy in numerous films. Each time he's a completely different person. Looking at this movie I am left wondering how many people he has left in him. When you take this role as a gruff CIA officer and compare it with the likes of Capote, or the gay dude in Boogie Nights, or even Brad in The Big Lebowski, it is apparent that Hoffman has extraordinary range. Probably the most out of any actor alive today.
The last thing I want to commend is the ending of this film that still resonates with me as I write this review. It amazes me that the US would fund a 1 billion dollar war but then wouldn't spare 1 million to rebuild the school system of war ravaged Afghanistan. This oversight of course would lead to the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden and could be said as the direct cause that we are in that country today. Unlike the other war movies this year, Charlie Wilson's War excels because it knows the ending of the tale. Therefore it can give us a moral to the story direct from Charlie himself: "What was done were glorious achievements...and then we fucked up the end game." Another lesson to be learned: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure.
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