Charlie Wilson's War

"Charlie Wilson's War" is about a Texas Congressman named Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) who wants to help Afghanistan fight off the invading Soviet Union. Charlie Wilson is not a famous politician but does his job well. What he is know for is partying and having a good time. While partying with a few friends he notices Dan Rathers on 60 Minutes and his piece on Afghanistan. After watching this he wants to help out anyone possible. He gets involved with Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who is a powerful, wealthy Texas woman who wants to help the cause as well. Charlie gets involved with a man named Gust Avarkotos (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who works for the CIA and wants to get rid of the Soviets as well.

The movie is well acted and directed. The director is Mike Nichols who directed "The Graduate" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". All actors and actress give great performances and in my opinion Phillip Seymour Hoffman stole the show. He acted great and was very funny. There was one scene in particular where Charlie and Gust where meeting for the first time and Gust brought a bottle of scotch and bugged it. He was listening to the entire conversation when he was asked to left the room because of an incident with Charlie. When he tells Charlie he is shocked and Charlie asks him to open the bottle because he wonders want else he did and if a noxious gas will come out.

Another funny incident is when Joanne sets up a meeting between Charlie and the President of Afghanistan. When the two meet to discuss war efforts the President asks Charlie if he would like a drink and Charlie says he would like alcohol and the President says alcohol is not permitted in the Presidential Residence. Charlie then says you must get that often and the President response by saying no. It was funny the awkwardness of the situation and Charlie's partying habits.

Charlie is in charge of the budget for convert operations in Afghanistan and wants to increase the budget from $10 million to $40 million. Once he gets his money it comes on coming. At the end when he all the weapons and training for fighting the Soviets to the Afghanistan people the budget comes out to $500 million. Because of his efforts in getting weapons to the Afghanistan people, they were able to shoot down helicopters, tanks, and airplanes and beat the Soviets. This victory over the Soviets helped furthered there downfall into the eventually destruction of the USSR. Due to his involvement to defeat the soviets Charlie Wilson was recognized with an award for helping defeat the Soviets, this award is the highest honor that could have been given to him.

Overall it is a pretty good movie and I would recommend this movie to anyone. The acting and directing where good and you will like this movie. I would give a 8.5/10, so check out this movie.