Charlie Wilson's War

Universal
Movie •••½ Picture •••• Sound •••½ Extras ••½

Although he didn't get the credit at the time, Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson was the man who got together enough funds for the 1980s Afghan freedom fighters to buy arms, so that they could force the Soviets out of their country. The film, which screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Mike Nichols fashioned as an acerbic black comedy, didn't do as well at the box office as one might have expected, given the casting of Tom Hanks (in the title role), Julia Roberts (as his friend and backer, Houston millionaire Joanne Herring), and Philip Seymour Hoffman (as CIA man Gust Avrakotos). Still, political/war movies had a tough year in 2007, even ones without freedom fighters that would eventually turn into the current Taliban.

That said, all of the talk in Charlie Wilson's War is deliciously entertaining, so DVD viewers shouldn't mind that the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix makes little use of the surround channels, instead sacrificing just about everything for the dialogue. And the picture is very good, with excellent, deliberately subdued color.

The only extras are two short featurettes. Sidestepping the ramifications of the U.S. arming of Afghanistan, they stick to the Congressman's story and the larger-than-life character of "Good Time" Charlie Wilson himself. There are many shots of the real Wilson and Herring - and seeing them next to Hanks and Roberts, you realize that the casting of the movie was ideal. Not so the planning of a home-video edition on the HD DVD format - an ad for which you'll find among the trailers. Too little, too late. Requiescat in pace.

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