I’m sorry, but whatever unflattering stuff I have to say about “Charlie Wilson’s War” is largely undermined by the utter stupidity of the American movie-going public who preferred “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” sending it to the top of the box-office well past “Charlie Wilson’s War”. I mean, seriously, is there anything good you can say about the intelligence of our citizens when they pick a completely implausible conspiracy theory movie over a film that’s likely to, while not necessarily being completely faithful to history, teach some kind of relevant lesson?

Sure, history lessons aren’t generally entertaining and if “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” was possibly a better movie than “Charlie Wilson’s War” I wouldn’t even make this point, but is there any question in anyone’s mind that on God’s strictly objective scale, “Charlie Wilson’s War” is not only the better film, but probably the more entertaining movie? That just goes to show you how many morons there are in this country. Give them two, probably equally entertaining options, and they pick the one the furthest from reality – and I doubt that there was actually some decision between reality and fantasy that was made. People are just stupid. Conspiracy theories are more plausible to them than reality. That’s how screwed up our country has become.

And this isn’t a debate between liberal and conservative. It’s a debate between stupid and smart. “Charlie Wilson’s War” certainly has a tinge of liberalism in it since it was written by “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin. Still, it’s about fighting communism in Afghanistan in the early 1980’s and there’s nothing more American than killing commies. And it stars everyone’s favorite actor, Tom Hanks, and everyone’s favorite actress, Julia Roberts. That is pure fucking American.

Charlie Wilson (Hanks) was a congressman in the 1980’s known more for his hard drinking and womanizing than his legislation. That is, until he discovered a cause worth working for: the Afghan resistance of the invading Soviet army. As far as this film is concerned, Charlie Wilson single-handedly stopped the Soviets. Okay, he got a little help from his assistant (Amy Adams), a wealthy Houston socialite, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), and a grumpy CIA agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Since it is a Sorkin script, you can bet there’s a lesson to be learned at the end and it’s that the U.S. is really good at identifying injustice in the world but really bad at seeing its plans to the end. In other words, if we hadn’t basically pulled funding for Afghanistan after they defeated the Soviets, we wouldn’t be in the current mess we’re in now. Does that sound like an argument to stay the course in Iraq to anyone else?

Like I said, either a liberal or conservative can see arguments to like in “Charlie Wilson’s War”, but in order to want that kind of intellectual stimulation, a certain intelligence is required. In this country, faced with a salad and a Double Whopper, people choose the Double Whopper. And given the choice between smart and stupid, people choose stupid.