‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ tells story of rogue congressman

The little-known lawmaker spearheaded funding for Afghan fighters battling the Soviets in the 1980s.

By ROBERT W. BUTLER

KANSAS CITY STAR

When we first meet U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) he’s sipping bourbon in a Las Vegas hot tub, surrounded by naked strippers while a few feet away more nude beauties snort lines of cocaine.

Rep. Wilson, D-Texas, seems oblivious to the skin and drugs. What piques his curiosity is the news report (the year is 1980) unfolding on the TV over the bar — an unshaven Dan Rather is in Afghanistan reporting on the war against the invading Soviets.

This film is about how Charlie Wilson, a party animal whose greatest legislative achievement in six terms was getting re-elected five times, became the key player in dealing the mighty Red Army its most humiliating defeat. You might even say good ol’ boy Charlie was largely responsible for the fall of Communism.

Only in America.

Mike Nichol’s “Charlie Wilson’s War” is a smart, bitingly funny look at a real-life figure still largely unknown to the general public despite being the subject of a best-selling book. It’s also a nifty satire of all things political and an indictment of Washington’s myopia and short-sightedness.

And thanks to the scintillating dialogue of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (creator of TV’s “The West Wing”) the film is full of snap, crackle and pop.

Charlie Wilson is divorced, perennially broke and almost certainly alcoholic. He’s a party animal who staffs his congressional office with sexy young women. His press aide is affectionately known as “Jail Bait.”

As Charlie is fond of saying, you can teach them to type but you can’t teach them to grow breasts.

For all of that he doesn’t come off as sexist or chauvinistic. The guy isn’t predatory, just fun-loving. (Makes you wonder — could anyone but good-guy Tom Hanks have pulled this off?)

On a trip back home Wilson falls under the sexual spell of Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), the sixth-wealthiest woman in Texas and a right-wing warrior who twists his arm into visiting refugee camps along the Pakistan/Afghan border. There Good Time Charlie has his faced rubbed in the horrors of war and the routine atrocities of the Soviets.

He returns primed to launch a covert operation that will funnel millions in American aide to the Afghan freedom fighters. Along the way he’ll wrangle huge secret appropriations out of Congress and forge an unlikely alliance of Israel, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to deliver weapons to the rebels.

He’ll team up with a bull-in-a-china-shop CIA spook (a brilliantly funny Philip Seymour Hoffman) and convert the head of the appropriations committee (Ned Beatty) to the cause.

Before long, bearded guys in turbans are using ground-to-air missiles to blow the previously invulnerable Soviet helicopters out of the sky.

What Charlie can’t do is retain funding for Afghanistan after the war is won and the Soviets vanquished. So he watches hopelessly as American influence in that country evaporates, opening the door for the Taliban and today’s messy situation.

This yarn is told in a series of sharp confrontations fueled by sparkling dialogue and a general lack of respect for the legislative process. Though pitched as comedy with absurdist flourishes, you can’t help thinking that “Charlie Wilson’s War” accurately captures the less-than-kosher methods by which laws are passed and money dispersed in our nation’s capital.

The result is not outrage so much as amusement; for all his faults, Hanks’ Charlie is a likable and charismatic figure who is a lot smarter than his lackluster legislative record would indicate.

The main drawback of “Charlie Wilson’s War” is that its protagonist never really matures.

You’ll laugh at the film, you may shake your head in sorry recognition of politics as usual, you may marvel at what was accomplished in Afghanistan without the press or the public ever catching on.

But for all of his unpublicized achievements, Charlie Wilson remains a bit of a screw-up, a superficial frat boy without the emotional weight to turn his story into true tragedy.