Words

Even though I have a policy of not watching trailers of movies I intend to catch, I just couldn’t help myself. :)

Charlie Wilson’s War, based on a book by George Crile, tells the true story of how a hard-drinking, womanising “Good Time Charlie” congressman from Texas teamed up with an assortment of characters–including a renegade CIA agent, a Houston socialite and a belly-dancer–to turn American’s Cold War foreign policy around by directing covert operations funding for the Afghans from a few million dollars to over a billion dollars annually, successfully driving the The Red Army out of Afghanistan.

Plot Interest:

The fascinating tale is fronted by a cast of heavyweights with the likes of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Cast Interest:

But really, it’s all about dear Mr Aaron Sorkin for me.

Screenplay Interest:

Trailer in HQ, or here on YouTube:

Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen in the trailer, Tom Hanks hasn’t taken to Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue very well; a lot of Sorkin’s signature cadence was lost in the delivery. Further, this flick has all the ingredients of overhype.

Also, it’s depressing to think that however well-intentioned Charlie might have been, the victory was short-lived. Far of being made free, pumping billions of dollars worth of weapons into an already unstable region plunged Afghanistan into years of chaos. The war had also kindled the flames of militant Islam. The many young men who headed to Afghanistan to fight the infidel Russians, returned home hardened by battle, expert in weaponry, and infused by religious extremism. And of them, the most famous must surely be Osama bin Laden.

A lesson in unintended consequences.