Story, cast make ‘War’ winner

It is amazing how fast “Charlie Wilson’s War” moves. From the moment one sees the kneeling Majahid, his palms raised to Allah, to the final epitaph, it feels as if the two-hour film was compressed into five minutes.

But that is not to say “Charlie Wilson’s War” is for everyone. The film is very much geared toward the crowd that liked “The West Wing” during its prime and would probably bore those with a low threshold for politics.

Based on a true story, the film chronicles the efforts of Charlie Wilson, a liquor-imbibing playboy Texas congressman who uses his power on the Appropriations Committee to channel money to the Afghan holy warriors fighting the Soviet Army who invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Tom Hanks plays Charlie Wilson and one can forgive his ill-fated attempt at a Texas drawl. He exudes all the charisma the real Charlie Wilson did, and his acting is superb. The audience follows his transition from boozing playboy to an unknown congressman with little power to an agent of destiny. He battles an indifferent CIA and single-handedly channels a billion dollars per year into the largest covert war in U.S. history, all without the help of President Ronald Reagan.

The most powerful scene of the movie comes during his change. He visits the refugee camp at Peshawar, Pakistan. He sees hungry masses mobbing a relief truck and jostling for bags of grain. He meets a handless boy, mutilated by a mine, covered in ridged and rippled burn scars and a grieving mother, eating the dust of her child’s grave.

Taking the misery with him, he walks atop a hill and turns. Below him, filling the bowl of a valley, is the camp, stretching from screen end to screen end. Only at this point is the size of the crisis illuminated. With Wilson’s change, the Soviets gain perhaps their greatest enemy of the 1980s. Or so the movie leads the viewer to believe.

Julia Roberts masterfully plays Joanne Herring, the sixth-wealthiest woman in Texas, who embarks on a Christian mission to fight the Soviets. She is beautiful, statuesque and pleasingly blonde. When the viewer first meets her, she emerges from the veranda of her mansion with her golden dress flowing. Perhaps it is only a superstar like Roberts who can play a woman as confident, arrogant, assured and stubborn as Herring. It is Joanne who first prods Charlie into action.

The one low point of the film was Amy Adams who played Charlie’s curvaceous administrative assistant Bonnie Bach. She had the annoying habit of always seeming to be on the verge of an orgasm every time she stood a foot away from her boss.

But it is Philip Seymour Hoffman who is the real treat. He plays Gust Avrakotos, the maverick, brusque, callous, pugnacious CIA operative who allies with Charlie in funneling money and weapons to the Afghans. The audience first meets Gust in his greatest scene, a fiery rage. He has just been moved from the Helskini, Finland desk and has been kicked to the cellars of the CIA. Hoffman deserves an Oscar nomination for the role.

“Charlie Wilson’s War” is a treat, especially for the students of politics and the Cold War. The film is a must-see, powered by excellent acting.