War

Charlie Wilson’s War (Paperback)

OK, here’s a spoiler.

According to this movie, the collapse of the Soviet Union is due, almost singlehandedly, to the relentless efforts of one U.S. Congressman named Charlie Wilson.

In short, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was countered with some secret U.S. (and Saudi Arabian) spending on Russian-designed weapons bought from Egypt, then delivered by an Israeli arms dealer to the Pakistan government, who then disbursed these to the freedom fighters of Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invaders. And Rep. Wilson (D-Texas) made it all happen using some interesting channels and spheres of influence.

This is a fantastical interpretation of history that dares to suggest that politicians with a cause are truly able to achieve great things. It was a surprise, therefore, that it was not a preachy Hollywood film about some Democrat cause du jour. In fact, the Democrats and Republicans we meet are all likable in many ways, yet despicable in others. Julia Roberts even played a likable right-wing religious zealot. (A far cry from Marcia Gay Harden in The Mist.)

While these people are truly fun to watch on the big screen, none were people you’d want to hang out with on Friday nights. The exception, perhaps, is Amy Adams who plays a very pretty, smart, fun and thoroughly likable assistant to the hero. Her only apparent personality flaws were her utter devotion to Mr. Wilson, and an unlikely career in politics.

Tom Hanks plays our hero well, as one might expect, balancing the noble and not-so-noble sides of the character in a believable fashion.

The best scenes, however, were when the world’s greatest character actor himself (and the real star of the film), Philip Seymour Hoffman, graced the screen. He plays a cynical career spy who wants to do something useful, despite his superior’s efforts to sideline him. This movie is worth seeing for Hoffman’s scenes alone. Sheer cinematic brilliance.

The movie finishes with a scene where Rep. Wilson attempts to get a mere $1 million to fund building schools in Afghanistan and is turned down by every member of the committee that just funded the war effort to the tune of $500 million. It finishes with a quote from the real guy criticizing the U.S. for leaving Afghanistan without reconstruction help after they fought off the Soviets.

The message, essentially, is “don’t go support a war, then abandon all the people that were displaced by it.” Obviously this ties into the current situations in Afghanistan (and also Iraq), but didn’t strike me as particularly preachy, left-wing, right-wing, Democrat, Republican or otherwise. In fact, and here was an interesting dash of irony, they blamed the work that needed to be done as a result of the downfall of the Soviet Union (that came about ostensibly as a result of Rep. Wilson’s hard work), for declining any help for the people of Afghanistan. Go figure.

Anyway, go see this movie. Five stars!

Troy (DVD)

Brad Pitt is the Rock Hudson/Jackie Chan of Ancient Greece. This epic movie, based on The Iliad, and The Aeneid, does take a lot of creative liberties with its portrayal of this noble period of Greek history. However, history exists to be interpreted by creative minds, and the result in this case is an uplifting couple of hours examining the human pathos.

“The face that launched a thousand ships”, the “Trojan horse”, the Spartan method of battle, the gods and the temples – all these images bring back high school memories of beginning awareness of different cultures and the romance to be found in history.

Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Achilles, with a battle style somewhere between dance and martial arts, and a body that would launch a thousand delicate hankies, (well, probably a lot more than a thousand) poses the soldier’s eternal paradox. Why indeed do kings not fight their own battles? And there are good men of honour who will die on each side of the battlefield. Achilles is remembered, and who better to remind us of his story than Brad? Perhaps one of the most fitting incidents in the making of the movie is the delay in shooting Achilles’ big fight with Hector due to an injury to Brad Pitt’s Achilles tendon.

Paris (Orlando Bloom) as prince, lover, poet and coward. This part of the story is open to interpretation, but Hector’s reluctance to kill him as he crawls to his brother’s feet is viable, and probably easier to portray than a rescue by a goddess. As the gods are continually being put into question during this depiction of Homer’s great epic, the mood of the story would be radically changed if a goddess actually intervened in the human drama.

This is a movie to purchase. It improves with multiple viewings, and not many movies live up to that type of scrutiny.