well recognizable and instituted element within human society and history. During the year of
1979, the Soviet Union initiated a war for soviet control and expansion over the Central Asian
state of Afghanistan. This confrontation known as the “Soviet-Afghan War” or the “Soviet War
of Afghanistan” lasted from 1979 to 1989 and was the Soviet equivalent of psychological recoil
brought forth to the United States from its involvement in Vietnam. Eventually, the
consequences of the conflict and its outcome swiftly expanded pass towards America as terrorist
organizations invested in secured operations of terror due to the power vacuum in Afghanistan.
However, the armed conflict in Afghanistan and its implications largely reflected the politics and
the individuals involved (Crile X). Politicians such as Former President Ronald Reagan and
Former Representative Charlie Wilson had made it their top priority to fight Communism and destroy any Socialist or Communist regime, including the Soviet Union (Weeler). Their efforts
generated various films of work to highlight and retell the war from a Hollywood perspective.
The most current film produced out of the Soviet-Afghan Conflict was “Charlie Wilson’s
War” directed by Mike Nichols with its screenplay written by Aaron Sorkin. A Universal
Picture, the movie originated from the book “Charlie Wilson’s War” by George Crile and
featured highly reputable actors such as Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman
playing the roles of Charlie Wilson, Joanne Herring, and Gust Akrakotos. Essentially, the film
was about Charlie Wilson’s role in the Afghan conflict and started with Charlie Wilson, hard
liquor drinking, girl chasing representative of the second Congressional District of Texas
attending an award ceremony in his honor. After the ceremony, the movie suddenly flashbacked
to the early 1980’s where Charlie Wilson has his beginnings with the Afghan struggle in his
seated position in a hot-tub with two half naked girls. A television screen soon directed Charlie
Wilson’s attention away from the girls to a documentary concerning the Afghan struggle. The
film continued to highlight Charlie’s progressing desire to help the Afghan as he meets and
courts Joanne Herrings, a wealthy businesswoman from Texas with many international
connections. Herrings used her feminine charm to fully persuade Wilson to take dire action in
helping the Afghans in their conflict with the Soviet Regime. After largely discouraged by CIA’s
current involvement, Congressman Wilson encountered CIA operative Gust Akrakotos under
surprising yet fortunate circumstances. The duo became an unstoppable team with Akrakotos
gathered intelligence on the Soviets and Wilson’s unchecked congressional power in two
powerful seats on the Foreign Relations Committee. They managed through a secretive CIA
endeavor to gather and transfer an alarmingly huge stockpile of former Soviet arms from Egypt
to the Afghan fighters who manage to defeat the Soviets in the end. Overall, the movie presented a largely entertaining masterpiece with some minor, but noteworthy changes from the genuine
history depicted.
Overwhelmingly most of the alteration from the actual history portrayed in the film
originated from the movie’s director, Mike Nichols. Primarily, Nichols who previous directed
such films as “What Planet Are You From?” and “The Birdcage” had stated it was a challenging
feat to truly present the film in accordance to the book by George Crile. As quoted, “It took
George Crile ten years to write the book. We didn’t have quite as much time as that...” (Nichols).
Moreover, as stated by Nichols, “One of the things I really would love to have done was to see
the Early Charlie with his big ten gallon hat and driving a convertible, actually yelling ‘Yee
Haw’” (Nichols). Subsequently, Nichols disregarded presenting several key figures involved in
Crile’s Book. For example, Nichols ignored placing Pakistani chief of security whose job was to
keep Wilson out of trouble whenever he visited Pakistan in the movie (Nichols). In addition, an
ambitious Egyptian general who ran a little weapon selling business was also missing from the
film when Wilson had visited his country (Nichols). Finally, Nichols made no attempt to display
the fully wild lifestyle of Congressman Wilson. For instance, Charlie Wilson had several
girlfriends and former fiancées yet the only one truly displayed throughout the film was Joanne
Herring (Nichols). Furthermore, Nichols portrayed Charlie Wilson conducting limited illegal
activity for a man once nicked named as “Good Time Charlie” for his wild behavior as
demonstrated whenever he continuously angered his fellow colleagues up on Capitol Hill
(“Charlie” 2) (Nichols). Conclusively, Nichols wanted to portray Wilson through Tom Hanks as
a “Hero from the South” with several questionable activities seen time and time again instead of
the truly untamed and fanatical legislator that was Charlie Wilson. Correspondingly, the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin contributed a substantial part in how the
movie distinguished from the true story of Charlie Wilson. Sorkin known for his work in “The
West Wing” and “American President” had attempted to script “Charlie Wilson’s War” full of
memorable lines and fast-paced dialogue as well as extended monologues for prominent
characters. Unfortunately there were several cliché’s and inaccuracies in his handiwork for
“Charlie Wilson’s War.” Chiefly, Sorkin’s ego has contributed the most staggering part in his
screenplay writing for the movie. For instance, Sorkin constantly demonstrated the unshakable
belief that audiences watch his movies for the same reason they read the op-ed pages on the New
York Times (Nichols). Furthermore, Sorkins portrayed the entire movie as though it was an
episode from “The West Wing,” believing that if his work was so substantially profound then so
should “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Nichols). Subsequently, Sorkin imparted several distinct faults
in the scripts for each character in the film. For example, the characters appeared entirely
indistinctive and at times analogous from one another (Nichols). Moreover, Sorkins had made a
lazy attempt to address the truly wild and eccentric character that undeniably was Charlie Wilson
(Nichols). Ultimately, Sorkins profound political knowledge and inquiry completely shaped his
involvement in the production of this film. As illustrated, Sorkins had placed the characters into
positions where they fundamentally gave lectures to each other based on Sorkin’s own political
references (Nichols). Additionally, he seamlessly expected the audience to actually know the
course of events in the War prior to watching the film rather than seeking to fully educate the
spectators on what truly had happened (Nichols).
Similarly, the actors, choreographer, and stage crew played a major component in
separating the film from the history it represented. First and foremost, the actors staged a very
vibrant array of personalities for the individuals they stared. Tom Hanks best celebrated for roles in “Apollo 13,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Cast Away,” “Saving Private Ryan,” and “Forest Gump”
performed in an almost courteous manner throughout the course of the film as Charlie Wilson
(Nichols, ). However, in his attempt to display Wilson as a respectable law maker, Tom Hanks
concealed much of the rowdy and highly flamboyant nature of the Democratic Congressman
from Texas especially in the hot-tub scene and in each scene involving Charlie Wilson and his
sex life (Nichols). Likewise, the choreographer Stephen Goldblatt provided several blunders
throughout the course of the film. For instance, when Wilson and Herring kissed each other as
first seen in the film they lean together with their heads leaned to the right and later shown in the
following shot breaking the kiss with their heads slanted to the left (Nichols). Additionally, the
Goldblatt made a similar error with the scene involving Wilson’s first meeting with the CIA
operative Akrakotos for which the position of the label that hid the bug found on Wilson’s bottle
of scotch constantly changed throughout each scene (Nichols). Lastly, the stage crew played a
pivotal piece in differentiating the film from the true story. For instance, the stage crew
mistakenly used American aircraft to represent the Soviet jets that the Afghans had destroyed
with their new stinger missiles (Nichols). Furthermore, the stage crew presented two Russian
helicopters massacring hundreds of Afghan civilians with empty rocket pods (Nichols).
In conclusion, “Charlie Wilson’s War” was a masterfully entertaining film chopped full
of dark humor and vivid realism that unfortunately moved away from the actual story in various
situations through various errors and misrepresentations crafted from the egos of the people
involved. Certainly the director and screen writer had expressed difficulty to produce a
nonpartisan film when they themselves had highly liberal viewpoints and ignored any need to
present such individuals as Ronald Reagan in their film when he has played an enormous role
throughout the entire war (Weeler). Moreover, movie stars such as Tom Hanks along with an extremely lazy choreographer and stage crew had completely disregarding the true nature of Charlie Wilson and the War he participated.