charlie.jpgWe have had Charlie Wilson’s War in our DVD collection for a couple of years at least. After the former Congressman’s recent death, the Better Half and I decided to watch the flick one more time. Sort of like a tribute, I guess, but more for our entertainment since we think it is an excellent film without too much left wing Hollywood crap in it.

In the flick, Tom Hanks plays the role of Charlie, a good ol’ boy politics playing Texas Congressman who gets transformed into a crusader against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Julia Roberts plays a role not unlike Kay Huchison, an activist anti communist socialite who prods Charlie into his eventual “war.” Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the gruff and profane CIA agent who acts as a catalyst in the transformation.

There was a sequence near the end of the flick, while Charlie Wilson is standing on the balcony with Gust Avrakotos during a party celebrating the defeat of the Soviet army in Afghanistan, Gust warns Charlie of future problems if he and the other members of Congress do not follow up on giving economic aid to the Afghani’s. As Gust finished this warning, Charlie thinks about what he said, and you hear an airliner flying over Washington DC. It is an obvious, ominous reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

As I indicated before, it is very entertaining, has lots of weapons, guns, blowing shit up, doesn’t try and make a twisted political statement and ends on a reminder of where we now live in the age of Islamic terrorism.

I rate Charlie Wilson’s War a quarter star short of five, holding back just because it was directed by the ultra-liberal Mike Nichols.