Triple Play: Charlie Wilson's War (DVD, Documentary, Book)

Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, "Good Time Charlie," had two sides to him, a well-earned reputation as a playboy and as a conservative hawk ready to lay it on the line to fight the Soviet Empire. You may vaguely remember the movie trailer where Julia Roberts says (paraphrasing), "Charlie, I want you to stop the Russians in Afghanistan and bring down the Soviet Union." This triple presentation tells how Charlies Wilson did that very thing.

All three are fascinating. The movie gives you the Hollywood shorthand version in which Wilson is so clearly dedicated to fighting a covert war in Afghanistan you wonder how a bunch of Hollywood liberals signed on to it. The History Channel documentary gives you the actual faces of the people who were the principals in the all-important funding of the war in Afghanistan as well as a taste of the much more complicated story. And the book gives you the full story, setting the details straight which were compressed or passed over in the movie.

All three are worth checking out.

DVD

Tom Hanks stars as Charlie Wilson in Charlie Wilson's War, providing a quick look at a congressman with a mission who was able to rack up favors by supporting bills his district had no interest in. Although the movie suggests Wilson had no one in his district clamoring for Capitol Hill pork, the book says that, more to the point, Wilson had no significant defense contractors clamoring for pork. While others are lulled and misdirected by Wilson's personal scandals, Wilson effortlessly doubles the budget for the war in Afghanistan.

Rich, right-wing Texas socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) further involves Wilson in the cause while street-wise CIA agent Gust Avrakodos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) works inside the CIA to actually direct the money where it needs to go despite opposition from the Ivy Leaguers in charge. Again, the script take a shortcut and boils the issue down to getting fire-and-forget Stinger missiles to the mujahadin to bring down Soviet Hind helicopters. Once achieved, the war settles into a Vietnam-style conflict of attrition, grinding to a final withdrawal by the Soviets and a warning by Gust (not derived from the book) in which he cites a Zen story about not quitting until the overweight vocalist sings. Great movie about a trio of wild characters who, happily, were on our side. The DVD's special features include a background documentary the viewer will find helpful.

Documentary

The History Channel documentary, as I said, is invaluable for setting the record straight, while familiarizing you with the personalities involved. History Channel specializes in counter-programming (see their documentary on the real battle of Thermopylae aired in response to The 300), offering engrossing documentaries on the facts behind current popular movies as they hit the multiplexes.

Book

George Crile's book lays it all out, starting out on page one with a disquieting note the movie failed to use: Charlie and Gust hijacked the foreign policy of the United States.

There are some significant differences from the movie, but you can understand how the movie's writers were forced to simplify and compress to produce an entertaining work. This is, after all, a fairly lengthy book and, as in real life, unlike movies, complicated.

For example, although the movie has Charlie Wilson's personal scandals misdirecting attention, it's actually the fact that Congress was focused on the CIA's Iran-Contra scheme and killing it's funding that drew attention from what Charlie Wilson was quietly doing in committee while calling in his markers.

That said, ít's surprising how much of the book got into the movie. The belly-dancer incident actually happened, Wilson really did have a female office staff known as Charlie's Angels (he kept his hands off although all other females were fair game), the drug bust was real (the movie didn't even get into Wilson's hit and run accident), and Charlie, Joanne, and Gust seem pretty much as portrayed (probably shouldn't be surprising, that's what actors are usually striving for most when they cite a movie's alleged accuracy).

All three highly recommended if you want a sense of how we got where we are in the Mideast with particularly useful insights on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the roots of the Taliban.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts

THE TRUE STORY OF CHARLIES WILSON'S WAR, History Channel

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, George Crile, Grove Press, trade paperback,550 pp, index