Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-05-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Overlooked in the end at the Academy Awards, and not ratcheting up the box office you'd perhaps expect of a Tom Hanks movie, Charlie Wilson's War is nonetheless a challenging, entertaining and underappreciated film, that deserves to find a bigger audience on DVD.

Starring Hanks in the title role, the strength of Charlie Wilson's War is in some talented people doing what they do best. Hanks eases into his part, as the Texas congressman who uses his extensive contacts book and unorthodox nature (which is putting it mildly) to initiate and wage a secret war. Alongside him is Julia Roberts on fine form in a small part, and the excellent Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is at the heart of the film's best, and funniest, moments.

Gluing Charlie Wilson's War together is an assured turn behind the camera from veteran director Mike Nichols. Nichols, still best known for The Graduate, is confident enough to let the comedy in a deathly serious story play out, while not shirking the drama either. It's a tender balancing act, that only flusters a little near the end.

It's not a perfect film, and the tone may be a little uneasy for some. But Charlie Wilson's War is, nonetheless, a very strong piece of American cinema, that has questions to ask, and manages to entertain at the same time. Well worth discovering. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
The first time the audience sees Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) in the early 1980s, he seems far from a model politician. Surrounded by strippers, a Playboy Playmate, and cocaine, the naked congressman lies in a hot tub at a party. Despite the distractions, the TV news catches Charlie's attention as Dan Rather reports from a war-torn Afghanistan. As Soviets invade the country, the Afghans lack the money and technology to defend themselves. Enter Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), a wealthy Texan who champions the cause of Afghanistan and, by extension in the Cold War, America. Together with CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Charlie begins a secret war where he must unite Israel, Pakistan, Egypt, and America to defeat the Soviets.
Just as director Mike Nichols brought a sense of fun to what should have been dour proceedings in films such as THE GRADUATE and CLOSER, this comedy about the largest covert war to date never feels like a history lesson. Writer Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is sharp and it's delivered with impressive verve from the film's trio of Oscar winners. Hoffman is famous for transforming into various characters, and he's remarkable, but it's Hanks's turn that's the most surprising. Outwardly, Charlie could resemble many of Hanks's previous roles, but the actor adds layers to the character and changes without the aid of makeup or prosthetics.

Customer Reviews

Really great film - but DVD has 3.5 minute intro you have to sit through
I saw this film at the cinema, came out and went right back in to see it again. As a fan of Aaron Sorkin it delivered exactly what I wanted.

Ordered as soon as available on the site - it arrived today and I have just started to watch it.

And it has a 3.5 minute trailer from unicef for a terribly important issue - HIV in Africa - at the beginning. It can't be skipped over. It can't be fast-forwarded past. It is terribly sad and depressing, and I'll have to sit through every time I want to watch this film - and I will want to watch it again.

It's maddening. Made worse paradoxically by the fact that the issue the mini-film is about it such a major one.

So: really good film - but be warned about the obligatory intro. I feel we should resist this development in new DVDs.

And Then We F*****Up The Rest Of The World



'A liberal as well as a libertine, Charlie Wilson finds common cause (among other satisfactions) with Joanne Herring, a right-wing Houston socialite who loves Jesus and martinis and hates Communism. She is a splendid American contradiction, standing up for liberty and godliness while getting into bed (literally) with a bachelor congressman and (metaphorically) with President Zia (Om Puri), the military ruler of Pakistan. And, after all was said and done, Charlie says "And then we fucked up the rest of the world." AO Scott

Charlie Wilson, was an unapologetic womanizer, cocaine user, alcohol lover and all around good guy., The kind of congressman any sane person would want to avoid. Not me, if I knew my congressman was akin to Charlie Wilson I would walk on water to see that he won office again. Charlie got things done, he had heart and he loved, what is more important in this world? Tom Hanks portrays him perfectly. Joanne Herring played by Julia Roberts is the perfect foil. A lovely blond bombshell who was intelligent and wanted to make the world a better place. She said she loved the Lord and that's how she portrayed her works to the world and to the people who she was able to enlist to help her. The winner in my mind is Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays Gust Avrakotos, a C.I.A. operative. He does not care whose feet he steps on, he just gets the job done. His ability to clear the air of any fanciful misunderstandings is well worth the price of the film.

Charlie Wilson is asked by Joanne to help the Afghan's, and it is not until he visits the refugee camps that he fully understands the need. Isn't that the way it always is? He is convinced and for the next ten years he does whatever it takes to turn the first $5 million into one billion dollars. When all is said and done, however, we leave Afghanistan in a mess and of course, today we see the result to a country in chaos- the terrorists take over.

"Charlie Wilson's War is a journalistic satire of realpolitik in which our jerry-rigged alliances, which looked strategic at the time, end up biting the U.S. in unforeseen ways. Hovering over the film is the audience's realization that the Afghan war, while it hastened the downfall of the Soviet Union, created the breeding ground for an arguably more toxic threat: the jihad radicals who had nothing but hatred for the West (even as they were only too happy to use its rocket launchers). It says Charlie was right to fight his war -- if only Congress had had the will to support his reconstruction dream!" Owen Gleiberman

I loved the reality of this film- it was fun but with such a good message. Charlie Wilson is a man whom we would all want to be part of our lives. He actually gets things done in government. It took a woman to show him what was really needed, but once he got the fever he worked wholeheartedly for the Afghans. The film's ending was not to my liking, but I can over look that one error. Everyone should see this film, see what can be done when some one has a vision.

Highly recommended. prisrob 04-24-

"Who said they couldn't bring down the Soviet empire?"
Tom Hanks' career could hardly be described as unsuccessful - he is one of only three actors ever to have seven consecutive $100million blockbusters - but his choice of roles hasn't always proved to be entirely triumphant. His recent turn as Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code, for example, was average at best; as one-dimensional as the film itself. And so, with very little knowledge of the 'war' in question, it was with great intrigue that I watched this, in which Hanks stars as a Democratic Texas Congressman, driven to supporting the Afghans' plight against the Soviet Union during the early 1980s. Wilson's idealism - which at times appears almost naïve - and his determination to pursue this cause, provides the film with its plot, and it is to Hanks' credit that the pace is maintained throughout. His portrayal of Wilson is a winning mixture of Southern charm, good humour, pathos, unerring resolve - and just a smidgeon of that ol' Tom Hanks' magic. Of course, the fact that he is flanked by the ever brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman and the statuesque Julia Roberts (highly convincing as Wilson's conscientious love interest, Joanne Herring) does him or the film no harm either...

If nothing else, Charlie Wilson's War succeeded in piquing my interest in the Cold War and in the darker side of American foreign policy - however well-intentioned - which I have since gone away and researched in more detail (with George Crile's book of the same name being the obvious starting point). The film, however, should be judged on its own merits and personally I did not find it to be pro- or anti-American, preachy, or moralistic, but it did open my eyes to how political and military victories were - and to a certain degree, still are - achieved. It is a touch heavy on the political jargon for the average movie-goer, but the dialogue is swift and witty throughout making this an enjoyable and entertaining film, regardless of the depth of your knowledge of the period in question.

Matt Pucci