Amongst the plethora of films about that strangest of beasts, American politics, this is the best. And for those lamenting the loss of The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War is manna from heaven.
Written by Aaron Sorkin, the complexity, wit and long tracking shots return like loved ones you’ve sorely missed. What he gets that is so damn rare, is that politics is farce, and making your audience laugh doesn’t stop them getting the point; in fact, it enhances the poignancy far more than being whacked in the face with some hefty message.
Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) has a saying: “You can teach them to type but you can’t teach them to grow tits.” This is a man who negotiates with his cowboy boots on the table. A man who cruises the political underbelly – drugs, hookers, arms dealing – and yet remains intrinsically likeable. He’s the perfect choice when rich bitch Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) decides she needs a guy to end the Cold War. How? Generate a covert op in Afghanistan, arm the Mujahideen and shoot down Soviets.
Their superb performances, and yet another smart turn by Philip Seymour Hoffman as a CIA agent, have to be credited to director Mike Nichols, who wrings all possible potential out of both actors and material. Most of all, he’s never patronising: if you’re not listening you’ll lose the plot, and it’s up to you to piece together the degree of irony intended when he cuts from a helicopter incendiary to Amy Adams’ arse wiggling through the White House.
Here’s a film that shows the US doing what it does best; illicitly funding a war, winning it and then failing to rebuild the infrastructure. But while that should ring bells, more ambivalent is the message about Reds under beds – the Soviets are the cut and dry bad guy, and that’s a rather startling oversimplification. What is crystal clear, however, is that this is filmmaking at its best – exciting, intelligent and impeccably performed. Not bad for a true story.
