"Charlie Wilson’s War"
By Claudia Mitchell/Special to the Rappahannock News
This Friday the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and Community (RAAC) will show its final film of the spring season. "Charlie Wilson’s War" is based on a true story that many company people in our area probably could have written with just as much if not more insider scoops. Think back to the "three martini lunch" Washington and you fall into the correct time period. Congressman Charles Wilson, played by Tom Hanks, was a free wheeling Congressman from Texas. He came complete with cowboy boots, swaggering magnetism that attracted the ladies, a tendency toward Playboy centerfolds, alcohol at 10 a.m. meetings and some cocaine thrown in for an extra POW! His office staff was made up of young beautiful women in revealing out fits (one was nicknamed "jail bait") who make his assistant played by Amy Adams seem like a lamb ready for the slaughter.
The story seems implausible .A wealthy Texas socialite played by Julia Roberts is obsessed by the outrageous injustices being done to the Afghan people by the Russians who have invaded their country and appear to be unstoppable. If this were not a true story I think the audience would be crying foul about now. She even invites the president of Pakistan to a luncheon fund raiser in Houston and he agrees to attend. It's true.
We begin to see the complexities of Charlie Wilson when he is able to arrange a sit down meeting in Cairo between an Israeli gun merchant and the Asst. Defense Minister of Egypt who is being convinced to go into a covert war with Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan while his boss is being seduced by a belly dancer from Texas! It's true?
Throw in a renegade CIA agent played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who had to be the only agent during that period who hadn’t graduated from Princeton, and you get a mile a minute story that takes place in Washington, Texas, Pakistan and Afghanistan and Egypt. Throw in some actual 1980s film footage of Dan Rather broadcasting from Afghanistan and the story really comes to life. I still remember him in those clips.
The story is intense with a dynamite screenplay written by Aaron Sorkin which is based on the novel written by George Crile. Mike Nichols directs. What a combination.
There is a lot of banter that keeps your attention and keeps you laughing but the real story is serious. This is the story of how and why the Taliban is in Afghanistan.
The film is rated R for strong language, nudity, sexual content and drug use. The martinis were the least of it!
Film starts at 8 p.m. at The Theatre in Little Washington and runs for 104 minutes. Tickets are $6 adults $4 for students.
This is our last film until we resume in September. Hope to see you there!