Gestern haben wir im Grindel gesehen, einen Film über (na sowas). Ich nehme an, dass es alle möglichen Möglichkeiten gibt, diesen Film zu beurteilen. Wieder mal ein auklärerischer Ansatz, die amerikanische (Nah-) Ost- Politik ironisch zu hinterfragen, zweifelsfrei mit ausgezeichneten Schauspielern. Es war nach Erin Brockovich nun das zweite Mal, dass mir Juila Roberts gefiel und nicht - wie sonst mit großer Zuverlässigkeit - tierisch auf die Nerven ging (nein, nicht wegen der Szene, in der sie aus dem Pool klettert). Tom Hanks, ja, klar, das kann er halt ganz gut, zweifelsfrei, aber vor allen Dingen haut Seymour Hoffman wieder alle an die Wand und den Zuschauer um. Inzwischen kann man getrost sagen, dass ein Film immer ein deutlich besserer Film wird, wenn er nur mitspielt.
Charlie Wilson's War erzählt die vermeintlich echte Geschichte des amerikanischen Kongressabgeordneten gleichen Namens nach, der auf Grund extremer Menschelei viel erreicht hat in seinem Leben, insbesondere die Bekämpfung der in den 80er Jahren, die schließlich sogar zu deren Aufgabe führte. Der Film erzählt zynisch, wie Politik gemacht wird und warum welche Entscheidungen nicht gefällt werden, welche Rollen Sex und Religion spielen, und dass letzten Endes immer jemand da ist, der schon ahnt, wie es weitergeht, den Lauf der Geschichte aber nicht aufhalten kann, weil ihm die notwendigen Mittel dazu fehlen. Das ganze geschieht mit einem guten Maß an Ironie und einer erträglich geringen Dosis Patriotismussenf.
Wie im Grunde immer bei amerikanischen Produktionen dieser Größenordnung rührt mich die Geschichte nicht sonderlich, gehen mir die Personen nicht Nahe, erinnert mich kein Schicksal an ein eigenes, sondern ich fühle mich einfach gut unterhalten. Dieses Mal sogar mit leichter Tendenz zu sehr gut.
Un film diretto da Mike Nichols tratto dal celebre romanzo “Charlie Wilson’s war” di George Crile.
Con: Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, Om Puri.
Il vero racconto di una delle più importanti operazioni segrete della storia ad opera del deputato texano Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks). Dotato di una mente furba, grandi capacità dialettiche e di un forte sentimento patriottico, Wilson, riuscì attraverso un'improbabile alleanza tra il Mossad israeliano, l'Egitto e il Pakistan a fornire, a spese degli Stati Uniti cannoni e lancia missili all’Afghanistan, sotto attacco da parte dei russi durante gli anni ’80. Appoggiato dalla ultramilionaria Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), anticomunista e amante di Wilson, e dal rozzo ma ingegnoso agente dell’FBI Gust Arrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), ripagò con la stessa moneta i russi, colpevoli di aver aiutato finanziariamente i Vietcong durante la guerra del Vietnam, facendo trionfare gli afgani e costringendo i soldati marxisti a firmare la Pace di Ginevra, il 14 aprile 1988.
Mike Nichols, affiancato dall’esperto scenografo Aaron Sorkin, pone un’immagine patriottica e trionfatrice degli USA, a differenza del collega Robert Redford, che con il recente “Leoni per Agnelli”, ha dato un ritratto negativo della sua nazione, impegnata nella “catastrofica” guerra in Afghanistan e Iraq. Entrambi, però, sembrano essere d’accordo sull’ignoranza e sull’inefficienza delle istituzioni (CIA e Congresso), colpevoli di portare avanti progetti sconclusionati, non considerando quelli aventi maggiore importanza per il bene comune. Di queste dichiarazioni ne è testimonianza una delle scena conclusive del film: Wilson, discutendo con il Congresso sulla tanto voluta sconfitta russa, richiede una minima somma di denaro rispetto a quella spesa nel finanziare gli armamenti afghani, per far costruire una scuola a Bagdad indirizzando allo studio i bambini usciti da una violenta guerra. Senza mezzi termini il Congresso si rifiuta categoricamente, non mostrando alcun interesse per le persone più bisognose.
Nel complesso il film mi è piaciuto. L’ho trovato interessante e molto attinente alla realtà storica grazie all’inserimento di videoregistrazioni sulla guerra russo- afgana, crude ma efficaci.
I just saw Charlie Wilson's War today. Great movie with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
and
Anyway, it was a really good movie. It had the bite of sarcastic humor mixed in with a little bit of everything else. The movie rolls along at a pretty quick pace, which is just right in my opinion. It was neither too fast that it left you confused or too slow that you got bored with it and wished that it would humor up. This is probably Hank's best performance since The Terminal in 2004. Hanks shows his versatility and plays Senator Charlie Wilson, whose playboy persona is almost impossible to not love. Hanks doesn't just throw around the playboy card, but mixes it with witty humor and empathy. Hoffman is a great counterpart to Hanks in this movie playing Gust Avrakotos, whose personality is gruff, yet he's the asshole you like to love. Roberts performance wasn't anything overly special. She plays a rich Texas woman very well, but other than that, she wasn't note-worthy.
The movie did get me thinking though. It always seems that the U.S. plays the "world police" and has to go and stop the spread of something, i.e. communism, terrorism, etc. We also seem to have adopted this philosophy and foreign policy that the enemies of our enemy are our friends. Does anyone else think this is a horrible idea or am I the only one. Charlie Wilson's War was about the USSR invading Afghanistan and the U.S. trying to help them in secret. This was in the late 1980's. Flashforward about 20 years. Remember who we were fighting right after 9/11? OH YEAH! It was the Taliban, the same people we helped get into power 20 years before...oops... Remember all those people we help to train to fight against the USSR? Yeah, about that... One of them happens to be one of the most wanted men in the world, one Mr. Osama bin Laden. Oops on that one too....The point I'm trying to make is that it seems like every time that the U.S. decides to go and police the world and ask the enemies of our enemy to help us fight, we just seem to create more problems that we're gonna have to clean up years later.
How about the fact that a predominately Christian nation keeps going to war against predominately Muslim nations, i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan. Sounds a lot like the Crusades from back in the Middle Ages huh? The U.S. isn't exactly doing a good job of fending it off either as we keep picking a bone with Iran over nuclear weapons. The U.N. is there to police the world so the U.S. doesn't have to. Maybe if the rest of the world isn't worried about Iran and bin Laden, maybe we shouldn't be either..
Charlie Wilson’s War is a late-2007 film about Democratic Texas congressman Charlie Wilson. The film, which was directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin, details Wilson’s covert dealings with CIA operative Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan people fight the Soviets during the Soviet-Afghanistan War in the 1980s. The film is adapted from George Crile’s 2003 book, “Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.” Charlie Wilson’s War was nominated for five Golden Globes, including Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category.
This is not a political blog, so I’m going to stay away from any of the facts presented in the film and stick to discussing Charlie Wilson’s War on the merits of film alone. That said, it is important to engage with the material presented in film and to challenge the versions of truth as displayed on the screen, regardless of the film. Charlie Wilson’s War presents a relatively moderate and sympathetic point of view of Charlie Wilson and the covert operation that armed the Afghani people and it does not shy away from pointing the finger of blame at the CIA and other aspects of government. The convoluted process of Congress and government action is given a fairly steady wag of the finger in Nichols’ film.
Charlie Wilson’s War stars Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, which is an interesting but effective casting choice. Wilson is a compelling character, always drinking whiskey and surrounding himself with a bevy of beautiful women. He is a congressman with a growing disdain for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, but feels his hands are tied. Wilson’s anti-communist friend and love interest, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) eventually convinces Wilson to tie United States funds to the Afghan fighters on the ground so that they can be well-equipped to fight the Soviets. Along the way, Wilson teams up with CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to secure the resources. Wilson’s assistant, Bonnie Bach (Amy Adams), follows gleefully along.
Charlie Wilson’s War is an entertaining and scintillating narrative that clicks along at a great pace. The performances, especially the performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman, are rather good. Tom Hanks is at his best as Wilson, possibly giving the best performance I’ve ever seen him in. His Wilson is a man spinning his tires, growing bored with the women and drugs of Washington, and trying to bring meaning to an otherwise sluggish career. When Hanks’ Wilson and Hoffman’s Gust meet up and begin to work together, Charlie Wilson’s War really gets underway. The chemistry between the two performers is incredible, as both men play off of one another with such wit and grace that it becomes clear that something wonderful is happening. Unfortunately, Julia Roberts as Joanne is unable to deliver as much punch in her performance and scenes with her falter. Amy Adams is suitable as the lovable admirer and assistant to Wilson.
Mike Nichols is the perfect director for this material, too. His last film, Closer, was a quick-witted, dialogue driven masterwork of an adult picture and Charlie Wilson’s War seems to pick up where that film left off. Nichols’ film brings out the best in Hanks and Hoffman, mining them with acerbic wit and caustic attitudes throughout the gentle Texas charm. His direction of the cast of the film is beautifully done, drawing comparisons to the snappy films of early Mike Nichols, including 1967’s The Graduate and the blistering political satire from 1998, Primary Colors. With writing from The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin behind it, Charlie Wilson’s War has the pedigree to be a work of genius in terms of political satire.
Yet, something about Charlie Wilson’s War falls a bit short of perfection. It is a very good film, with many memorable moments and tremendously entertaining characters. Something about the film falls short of closure, however, and there is a feeling that it ended about 30 minutes too soon. At just over 90 minutes, Nichols’ film is a tightly wound little spitfire, but had it had an extra 30 or so minutes, it could have achieved epic ironic greatness. There are hints towards the inexorable history of things during Hoffman’s last scenes in the picture, but overall the finale as we see it feels a bit slight and underwhelming for the build-up.
Charlie Wilson’s War can best be summed up by Hoffman’s engaging final scene, in which he tells the story of a Zen master and a village. As Hoffman eventually finishes the story, with it’s “We’ll see” ideology (or punch line, depending on your outlook of history), we too learn something about Charlie Wilson and the events swirling around the bowl. We learn that history is about results, not necessarily planning. As they say, you can plan plans, but you cannot plan results. The same is true for the composition of Charlie Wilson’s War. Something in the film is slightly out of step, yet it remains a sharp and often stellar film that should win audiences and fans for years.
Basada en la historia real del congresista de los EE.UU, Charlie Wilson que a lo largo de los años 80, acabó implicando en su país en la Guerra de Afganistán hasta el punto de proporcionar armas a aquellas milicias Talibán que luego atentarían contra su propio país.
ESTRENO EN USA: 25 diciembre 2007 ESTRENO EN ESPAÑA: 15 febrero 2008
DIRECTOR
-Mike Nichols ('Closer', 'Primary Colors', 'A Propósito de Henry', 'El Graduado')
GÉNERO: Drama GUIÓN: Aaron Sorkin FOTOGRAFÍA: Stephen Goldblatt
REPARTO
-Tom Hanks ('La Terminal', 'El Código Da Vinci', 'Ladykillers', 'Camino a Perdición'...)
-Julia Roberts ('Closer', 'Oceans Eleven', 'Oceans Twelve', 'Erin Brockovich'...)
-Philip Seymour Hoffman ('Misión Imposible III', 'Capote', 'Cold Mountain')
-Amy Adams ('Junebug', 'The Wedding Date', 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby')
-Om Puri(Código 46)
-Jud Tylor -Nazanin Boniadi
IMÁGENES DE LA PELÍCULA
TRAILERS -Trailer en versión original
[dailymotion id=QwoVG1rhsPMtPmBt3]
