CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR

Year: 2007
USA: Universal Studios
UK: Universal Pictures International (UK)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, Terry Bozeman, Brian Markinson, Jud Tylor, Hilary Angelo, Cyia Batten, Kirby Mitchell, Ed Regine, Daniel Eric Gold, Emily Blunt, Peter Gerety, Wynn Everett, Mary Bonner Baker, Rachel Nichols, Shiri Appleby, P J Byrne, John Slattery, Thomas Crawford, Joe Roland, Patrika Darbo, Amanda Loncar, Salaheddine Ben Chegra, Om Puri
Director: Mike Nichols
Country: USA
USA: 97 mins
UK: 101 mins
USA Rated: R for strong language, nudity/sexual content and some drug use
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language
USA Release Date: 21 December 2007
UK Release Date: 11 January 2008
UK DVD Release Date: 5 May 2008

Synopsis

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR is the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today. Oscar® winners Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman team with Academy Award®-winning director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to bring George Crile's best-selling book to the screen.

Charlie Wilson (Hanks) was a bachelor congressman from Texas who had a habit of showing up in hot tubs with strippers and cocaine. His "Good Time Charlie" exterior, however, masked an extraordinary mind, a deep sense of patriotism and a passion for the underdog, and in the early 1980s the underdog was Afghanistan, which had just been brutally invaded by the Russians.

Charlie's longtime friend and patron and sometime lover was Joanne Herring (Roberts), one of the wealthiest women in Texas and a virulent anti-communist. Believing the American response to the Russian invasion was anaemic at best, she encourages Charlie into doing more for the Mujahideen (Afghan freedom fighters).

Charlie's partner in this uphill endeavour is CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman), a blue-collar operative in a company of Ivy League blue bloods. Together, the three of them - Charlie, Joanne and Gust - travel the world to form unlikely alliances among the Pakistanis, Israelis, Egyptians, arms dealers, law makers and a belly dancer.

Their success was remarkable. Funding for covert operations against the Soviets went from $5 million to $1 billion annually. The Red Army retreated out of Afghanistan. When asked how a group of peasants was able to deliver such a decisive blow to the army of a superpower, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq responded simply, "Charlie did it."

DVD EXTRAS

Making Of Charlie Wilson's War
Who Is Charlie Wilson