This is an amazing film. Amazing for many reasons. It's an amazing film because it's fiercely anti-Communist, denouncing Soviet crimes against humanity in Afghanistan in the 1980's like no other Hollywood movie in recent memory. It's an amazing film because it celebrates Texas Congressman Charles Wilson (Tom Hanks) as a great American hero, without sweeping his personal life under the carpet. In fact, the film praises the hedonistic lifestyle of "Good Time Charlie" and goes as far as to denounce a young hot-shot district attorney from New York named Rudy Giuliani for trying to investigate him. It's an amazing film because it celebrates Texas socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) as an arch-conservative, right-wing Christian fundamentalist who hates Commies like a plague - it is absolutely unprecedented to see such a figure presented as a 100% positive and admirable character in a Hollywood movie. Especially in a Hollywood movie written by liberal Aaron Sorkin ("West Wing", "The American President") and directed by liberal Mike Nichols ("Primary Colors"). But "Charlie Wilson's War" had to be an amazing movie, because Charlie Wilson was a such an amazing character himself. He was a liberal, pro-choice, women-chasing Democrat from Texas who was more anti-Communist than Ronald Reagan himself. Like Oscar Schindler (another hedonistic
bon vivant turned humanitarian crusader), he had an epiphany while visiting a refugee camp in Pakistan and seeing Afghan children mutilated by bombs hidden in toys. Brilliantly directed, "Charlie Wilson's War" is a crisp, biting satire that confidently mixes sex and politics, and moves at a breakneck pace without wasting a single moment. Soundbites are sharp and memorable. Moreover, the film offers an amazing emotional roller-coaster, going from satiric farce to Schindler-caliber pathos in a matter of seconds, and featuring naked Playboy bunnies in hot tubs, as well as disfigured Afghan mothers, not to mention a bevy of drop-dead gorgeous congressional assistants working for Charlie (Amy Adams among them). While the film is a hilarious political satire, it has no broad political caricatures. Every major character - left or right - is a complex, multi-dimensional individual full of contradictions and nuances. The film is anti-red, but it paints everything in amazing shades of grey.
