Charlie Wilson's War

"We'll see, the Zen master said."

I find it hard to come up with fresh adjectives when writing about movies I like. In the case of Mike Nichol's latest, I'll settle for brilliant! A trio of brilliant performances by Tom Hanks, Julie Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman and a brilliant script by Aaron Sorkin brilliantly staged by 76-year old American director Mike Nichols. Enough with brilliant. This film explodes off the screen with one great sequence after another. Hilarious, tragic and lacerating...sometimes all at once, and remarkably balanced, despite the Democratic pedigree of the filmmakers.

Back in the 80's when most kids my age were playing Atari, I was reading Time, Newsweek and National Review, so I can recall the events portrayed and I even have a vague recollection of Congressman Charles Wilson from Texas. He was a "Blue Dog Democrat" (a breed that no longer exists), the name given to the group of conservative Democratic congressmen that had enormous power when Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill faced off in epic battles. They were often the swing vote which accounted for their disproportionate clout in the House.

This movie isn't a hatchet job on Wilson and his associates -- who covertly and intrepidly armed and trained the Mujahideen so they could drive the Russians out of Afghanistan and hasten the demise of the Soviet Empire -- but it is a case study in the unintended consequences that accompanied that decision. A straight line can be drawn from that to 9/11 and our current involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq. Terrific ironies abound and places and names that fill today's headlines crop up in Charlie Wilson's story. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Giuliani and Bhutto (Benazir's father). And at the center the Afghan "freedom fighters" who gave birth to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Even knowing what we know now, a case can be made that it was the right thing to do, but the best of intentions often go awry and it's usually the "endgame" that gets screwed up (Charlie Wilson would use a different word). In one sad scene after the war has been won, we see Wilson trying to convince his colleagues to approve $1 million dollars to rebuild schools in Afghanistan (this after having spent hundreds of millions on the war). The response? "Nobody gives a s--- about Afghanistan anymore." 13 years later American troops were invading after 9/11.

In another great scene, Wilson and his wonderfully colorful and loyal staff are celebrating his re-election and success in helping to defeat the Russians. CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (played by Hoffman) tries to bring some perspective to Charlie by telling him a parable about a Zen master and a boy. I paraphrase:

In a village, a boy got a beautiful pony, and all the villagers said, 'That’s wonderful.' The Zen master said, 'We’ll see.' A couple of years later, the boy fell off the pony and broke his leg and all the villagers said, 'That’s terrible.' The Zen master said, 'We’ll see.' Then a war came and all the other boys went to war, but the boy couldn’t go because of his leg. All the villagers said, 'That’s wonderful.' The Zen master said, 'We’ll see.'

And so it goes. Or as is said elsewhere in the film, "the ball keeps bouncing" even when we've looked away. A master of a different kind, in fact the Master, said to Peter "all who take the sword will perish by the sword." Is this a call to pacifism? I think not. But it is a call to careful, prayerful reflection, for rarely (never?) is the taking up of the sword without unintended consequences. And as this movie dramatizes, in another entire subtext that I could write a lot about, claiming a religious warrant for fighting our enemies is a slippery slope that leads to a moral twilight zone.

Joanne Herring, the Texas right-wing socialite played by Roberts, "who has the body of Julia Roberts" and "the brain of William F. Buckley" (Paul Asay writing at pluggedinonline.com), tries to frame the conflict in Afghanistan as a Christian crusade. In one scene Wilson tries to get her to tone down the rhetoric. For one thing, the enterprise is dependent on the support of Wilson's more liberal Democratic colleagues, but also on the Israelis, Saudis and Pakistanis...none of whom want to be seen as participants in some kind of Christian holy war. But Herring demurs and tells Charlie, "I talk about God for one simple reason, we need Him on our side." Charlie's reply is priceless. "Sooner or later, God's going to be on both sides."

Charlie Wilson's War is a success on every front and may turn out to be my favorite film of 2007.