movie judiciously concentrates on Wilsons maneuvering

But the movie judiciously concentrates on Wilson's maneuvering, two decades ago, through a political landscape, in Washington and abroad, that was more clearly defined — remote and relatively innocent, almost a fantasyland. (Consider this: Charlie is a liberal Democrat from Texas.) In focusing on the man as much as the movement, on the process of achieving a goal more than the goal itself, Charlie Wilson's War gets to celebrate an all-American hybrid: wheeler-dealer idealism. Good-time Charlie Wilson makes deals in hot tubs surrounded by naked prostitutes. The age, pulchritude and dress code of the all-girl staff in his Washington office show that he believes more in cleavage than in cloture. Hanks' portrayal of this genial, grasping, philandering Texas charmer owes a lot to Larry Hagman's J.R. Ewing from Dallas — a man who took so much pleasure in screwing people, and did it with so much con-artistry, that they often enjoyed it too. That's the secret of a successful politician: If you manipulate Them (the voters, the lobbyists, your colleagues) suavely enough, they'll think they're getting massaged. On TV, of course, J.R. was a villain, the snake with a smile. Charlie, dipping into the same bag of tricks, is a hero. His business in Congress is to funnel money, jobs and programs to his constituents, not to some ragtag guerrillas in a country no one cares about. But when he hears that the mujahedeen have a chance to evict the Russkies if only they're properly armed, he gets religion. He's a man with a mission: get the money to get the arms to Afghanistan. Unlike some who are born-again, Charlie doesn't discard his old ways. He's attracted to this unlikely, maybe undoable scheme in part because it requires his own special skill set, and in part because — as Charles Foster Kane said about running a newspaper — Charlie thinks it would be fun to bankroll a counterinsurgency. In the cheerful bravado of a can-do Texan, he thinks: Hell, why not? When Charlie masterminds it, war is swell.


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