The premise of this movie is that an obscure US Congressman, not even a Senator mind you, defeated the Soviet Union almost single handedly. Right. And someday Tom Cruise will convince everyone in the world that he is straight. Right after he decides to share the same bedroom with his current wife.

The coincidences and contradictions in this movie are a little hard to believe. Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks, is a hard drinking, skirt chaser in the US House of Representatives. Even though he has the morality of an alley cat, he is touched by the plight of the peasants in Afghanistan who are being slaughtered by the Soviets in the 1980's. He just happens to be a liberal even though he represents a rural district in Texas. Which is like being the only fox living in an all-chicken condo building. You don't think the chickens would eventually get wise?

But the oddities don't stop there. We are supposed to believe that Charlie just happens to know the one Jew in all of Israel who can supply Soviet weaponry to the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan. And he can get massive appropriations bills passed in Congress to fund a covert war to help the Mujaheddin. Eventually the funding from Congress hits $500 million a year - without the press finding out. He also personally knows and claims to have boinked a wealthy Texas woman, played by Julia Roberts, who is so right wing and anti-communist she makes J Edgar Hoover look like a card carrying member of the ACLU. Only she fills out a cocktail dress much better than J Edgar ever did. This humorless right wing nut gives Charlie campaign contributions and goads him into opposing the godless commies even though he is a liberal. Charlie also claims to have laid some pipe with Diane Sawyer back in the 80's when she was still young and very hot. His congressional staff seems to be made up entirely of busty bimbos. They are called "Charlie's Angels" tee hee. Their only real qualification is an uncanny inability to button their blouses all the way up. But his bible belt constituents don't object to this. Are you getting dizzy yet with all the inconsistencies?

The movie claims that Charlie was the one who organized the entire effort to defeat the Soviets, with some major help from a small circle of rogue CIA agents hell bent on killing as many Russians as possible. Apparently the Carter and Reagan administrations were totally out of the loop on these worldwide shenanigans. I have read some of the history on this and that's just Weenie Democrat Party bullshit.

This movie was made by a bunch of liberal Hollywood types, like Director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. It is obvious what they are doing here. This is a lame attempt to prove to the world that Hollywood is not composed of a bunch of wimpy ass pacifist Democrats. Nichols and Sorkin practically revel in their anti-Soviet rhetoric, which they should, of course, because the Soviets were murdering scum in Afghanistan. But for Nichols and Sorkin and Hanks this is like a bargaining chip. Once they prove their patriotism on Afghanistan they can then have the moral authority and the big brass ones to condemn the occupation of Iraq, which they should. But you as a potential customer for this tripe should know what they are up to.

--Dan_in_Cincinnati