Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #538 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

Great Film, hate the advert
Although I already knew about US involvement in the covert war, it was interesting to see it splashed onto screen - not sure how the US Govt feel about it as it shows them being dragged into helping via Wilson, et al, rather than being proactive about it! The cast do a great job at getting into the skin of the characters they portray. I feel the film portray's Wilson's frustrations very well. Having rented the film, it is one I do feel I would buy. However - along with several comments here - that UNICEF advert at the beginning is incredibly annnoying. Was staggered that could not fast forward it, skip it, or get to the Menu. Never come across that before and it really wound me up as had to endure it. More likely to contrbute to UNICEF as a result? No.

Really good film, but.......
A really good film which is nearly ruined by a compulsory advert that try as you might you can't skip or speed up. I have no problem with UNICEF or the work it does but I strongly object to having to watch a rather long advert before you get to the real menu for the film.

Bitter satire on US foreign policy
Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron ("West Wing") Sorkin, and, an opening caption tells us, based on true events, the War in question is the war between the Soviet Union and the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. The film starts with a pudgy-looking Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) being honoured by the "people of the clandestine services" in an aeroplane hangar. We then cut to a naked Hanks sitting in a hot tub surrounded by strippers and drugs, with one eye on a US TV news report on Afghanistan.

From this position of dubious moral authority, Wilson decides the mujahideen must be helped and he gradually engineers a massive increase in US government funds for CIA black operations. He's helped by a born-again southern plutocrat played by Julia Roberts (in a garish peroxide wig) and the excellent Philip Seymour Hoffmann as an old CIA hand who just wants to kill as many Russians as possible.

Made as it was in the aftermath of 9/11 and the global terrorist threat spawned in the ruins of post-war Afghanistan, this film's depiction of the Congressman's glorious victory can only be bitterly ironic. Either that or this is the most tasteless film I've ever seen. (The depiction of the Russians is plain racist.)

What's terrifying is how the US can exert decisive on a distant land where it has no real geopolitical interest, with no vision of the repercussions we're all suffering from now. As the film shows, once the shooting stops and the Russians have been forced to withdraw, the money is cut off and the Afghan state is left to fail. Even though Wilson pleads for a paltry $1m to build a school, he's met with indifference. Cue the Taliban and Osama bin laden.

Comedy? It's better that that, it's satire in its purest form.