wilson

This is an enjoyable movie about congressman Charlie Wilson, the man behind the US covert backing of the Mujahedeen in their war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The story in itself is very surprising; how come that a many-flawed congressman from Texas takes up the cause of the Afghan fugitives in Pakistan, when before this his main accomplishment, besides his hobbies of womanising and coke-using, was (quote from movie) to get re-elected five times.
The movie is very effective in showing the flaws in the political system in the US of the 1980’s (can’t imagine things have changed much); the decision-makers, not hampered by any knowledge, the neglected info supplied by people who do know what they are talking about, and the strong influence of rich lobby groups. This portrail of Washington is painfully naked, not over-the-top Wag the Dog silly, but not far behind. One bridge too far in my opinion, is the open effort by the film makers to include a political correct lesson, squeezed in at the end of the movie, linking this story to present Afghanistan. Yes, the cold war liaison with Afghan groups was ended after the Soviets left, leaving the country with a vacuum of power out of which no good was to come. This short-sightliness in US foreign policy, however, is so well-documented en evident, that only people who haven’t read a paper in the last two decades, are served by the somewhat melodramatic tone at the end of the film. This being said; a good movie, highly watchable and I have to say this again: Philip Seymour Hoffman is King!!