Charlie Wilson's War

Viewer Rating:Cascarino has rated Charlie Wilson's War rating: 3 Star

Charlie Wilson's War is a short look at some seminal historic events in the downfall of the Soviets in the Cold War, and the heretofore understated part played by a crafty US Congressman, Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks). It shows how Wilson cleverly navigated and manipulated the bureaucratic landmines of the US political system to single-handedly raise the funds for the Afghans' fight against the Russians. It's a nice but seriously underwhelming film which doesn't get down and dirty enough to really give any sort of dramatic insight into such an interesting period in history. At 97min long, I suppose that might have been too much to expect. The acting is good (particularly from Seymour-Hoffman) and the film is not without style, but I just ended up feeling a little short-changed and disappointed that they didn't do more with this. It also HAS to be said that it only made one belated attempt to disguise the fact that it is pure American propaganda and puts an almost sexy spin on what were very bleak and dangerous times of conflict. Well worth a watch for information purposes and a quick reminder of recent history but well short of the great epic it may have been

Review published on the 19 May 2008 15:19