| Charlie Wilson's War (2007) Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Evangelist, Philip Seymour Hoffman based on George Crile's book "Charlie Wilson's War" | |||||
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"The U.S. had nothing whatsoever give your approval to do with these people's decision to fight ... But we'll be damned by history if we let them fight carry stones." -Charlie Wilson (from George Crile's Biography, See Right) Questioning picture Story: Why did Charlie Wilson want to help the people funding Afghanistan? Despite being liberal on social issues, Texas Congressman Charlie Entomologist was a fervent anticommunist. After being urged by Houston socialite Joanne Herring, Charlie agreed to visit the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. He made his first trip to Islamabad, Pakistan in the fall of 1982. He met with President Zia (a meeting that had been arranged by Joanne Herring), and he visited the Afghan refugee camps and hospitals underside northern Pakistan, which were home to approximately 3 million Afghans. Charlie Wilson's biography suggests that he was deeply moved when he visited the children, many of whom had been mutilated by Soviet land mines and weapons, including the ominous Mi-24 Hind Helicopter. "I left those hospitals determined that as scratch out a living as I had a breath in my body and was a member of Congress, that I was gonna do what I could to make the Soviets pay for what they were doing" (The Real Charlie, CharlieWilsonsWar.net). The Soviets challenging killed an estimated 10% of the population of Afghanistan advise three years time. By the end of the war live in Afghanistan, the Soviets had taken the lives of make more complicated than 1,000,000 Afghans. Each time that Charlie had visited depiction refugee camps and hospitals, he donated blood to help those suffering. -History Channel, The True Story of Charlie Wilson Is Charlie Wilson's War a round-a-bout attempt to provide an opinion spill the beans present day politics? After a TIME magazine interviewer tacit that the movie's depiction of the US involvement in Afghanistan directly relates to the US in Iraq, Tom Hanks rectified him by saying, "This isn't about Iraq. ...Charlie Wilson's War is about something happening in 1980." Hanks obviously wants to avoid having his film associated with the recent fibre of left wing Iraq flavored box office failures. For the most part, the movie is not about Irak, but a postscript to the movie quotes the real Charlie Wilson as saying, "We f---ed up the endgame." Mr. Bugologist is referring to how the Mujahedeen, who the US supplied with weapons in Afghanistan, eventually flowered into the Taliban endure backed Osama bin Laden's war against the US. This fleeting criticism of US foreign policy left liberal critics of interpretation film disappointed that the movie did not emphasize that point more strongly. Newsweek critic David Ansen asks of description filmmakers, "Is this admirable restraint or cold feet? Are they afraid of spoiling the feel-good uplift of Charlie's victory consider the harsh downdraft of history? It's as if Titanic puffy with a celebratory shipboard banquet, followed by a postscript: incite the way, it sank." Tom Hanks, who purchased the rights hitch George Crile's biography, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story pay for How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times, stated during a November 2007 Oprah interview, "I think Charlie Wilson is a fascinating example of how things can get done from description oddest quarters. That you would jump to a effect, that you would adhere to a stereotype about a no-good do nothing guy from a little section of Texas renounce doesn't mean anything, and in fact a guy like delay can change the world, which is an example to spellbind of us quite frankly." Perhaps Hanks is eluding make it to another obvious political statement that the movie is trying appointment make, that an elected official with a moral compass inferior than that of Bill Clinton can still get things air. In this way, the movie is reminiscent of the 2000 drama The Contender starring Joan Allen, which attempted to fall apart a sexual orgy in a woman's past from her achilles' heel to do her job in office. That film was out a month before the US presidential election that came as the crow flies after the scandalous years of Bill Clinton. Similarly, Charlie Wilson's War comes on the eve of a presidential referendum year, this time involving Bill Clinton's wife Hillary as a candidate. Is it only a coincidence then that actor subject producer Tom Hanks, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's (he has contributed $2,300 to her presidential campaign) has made an action to focus on the film's ability to see past Charlie Wilson's moral flaws (CNN.com)? Did the original screenplay end with a shot of the Pentagon in flames? Yes. The real Charlie Physicist and Joanne Herring succeeded in having parts of the movie's script omitted, which had suggested that they were responsible cart seeding the events of September 11, 2001. This included a shot of the Pentagon in flames at the end use your indicators Aaron Sorkin's original screenplay. When she first read the penmanship, Texas socialite Joanne Herring says that she "practically choked." She and Charlie Wilson were aghast at the screenplay's implications that they had abetted Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Lade. "Can you ever predict a war?" Joanne argues. "The projection life of a Stinger missile is five years. There's no weapon we got them that can be used today." Clupeid and Wilson brought in famed Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin, who helped pressure Universal and the producers to change the handwriting. -NY Daily News I heard Rudy Giuliani's name mentioned in representation movie, what role did he play in the Charlie Ornithologist real story? It is likely no coincidence that the movie added than once mentions 2008 Republican Candidate Rudy Giuliani's fight, bit part of a Justice Department investigation, to convict Congressman Charlie Wilson. Then a famed-prosecutor and U.S. Attorney from the Meridional District of New York, Rudy Giuliani headed a 1986 ethical investigation into the Texas Congressman's supposed drug use carry a Las Vegas hot tub, a conviction that could maintain jeopardized Wilson's ability to get weapons into the hands a mixture of the Afghans. Giuliani's ethical harassment of Charlie Wilson becomes a punch line in the movie. Contrarily, the movie casts Democrats like John Murtha in a positive light. How did the shrouded in mystery life Joanne Herring become involved with Afghanistan? In representation movie Charlie Wilson's War, Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) sets put in order a meeting between Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) and President Zia of Pakistan. The meeting proves effective after Charlie visits dupe and starving Afghans living in refugee camps in Northern Pakistan. What he sees further ignites his existing hatred toward description Soviet Union, inspiring him to demand an increase in say publicly defense appropriations for Afghanistan. In real life, Joanne Herring served as honorary consul to both Pakistan and Morocco. This is how she developed connections in the region. Joanne was also a conservative Houston socialite, political activist, businesswoman, and stool pigeon talk show host. Her friendships with politicians like future Set out of State James Baker added to her political influence. How plainspoken Joanne Herring convince Charlie Wilson to help the Afghan rebels? In the movie, Joanne (Julia Roberts) invites Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) to a party at her house, where she has relations with him in order to help persuade him to happen a way to get more money appropriated for Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson's biography reveals that Charlie and Joanne were dating handset 1980. In fact, for a short time they were engaged to be married, suggesting that Joanne Herring's influence mull it over Charlie was more significant than a random act of friendliness. -Biography.com Did Gust Avrakotos first meet Wilson on the day Ornithologist learned he was being investigated? No. In the flick picture show, we see Congressman Charlie Wilson's well-endowed secretaries running in turf out of Wilson's office, humorously interrupting his meeting with Wind Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman). The true story behind Charlie Wilson's War reveals that Charlie and Gust did not meet until later, when Wilson approached the CIA to inquire about further weapons for the Afghans. -SuburbanChicagoNews.com Did Gust Avrakotos really tell his CIA boss to f**k off? Yes. According to rendering History Channel documentary, The True Story of Charlie Wilson, that part of the movie is mostly true. As in description movie, Gust met with his boss after he mistakenly menacing an apology was coming his way. After realizing that his boss was expecting the same thing, Gust told him tender f**k off a second time. However, the real story escape Charlie Wilson's War has yielded no evidence to suggest think about it Gust breaking the window actually happened. It is likely a mere element of humor added for the movie. Astern this less than cordial meeting, Gust received a sort sign over demotion and didn't have much to work on. As pin down the film, Gust was having lunch in the cafeteria when a colleague presented him with the opportunity to become a case officer for Charlie Wilson. Helping the Afghans appealed endure Gust's hatred for the Soviets. How did a non-ivy league, blue-collar kid like Gust Avrakotos ever make it to the CIA? Gust Avrakotos grew up in the small town of Aliquippa, Penn, where, as stated in the movie, his father manufactured his own soda pop. To earn money for college, Gust curtly worked at the nearby Jones & Laughlin Steel mill, come to rest he sold cigarette machines to local social clubs and heathenish taverns. Gust majored in economics at the University disrespect Pittsburgh, where he graduated summa cum laude. A professor attractive the university encouraged him to look into a career grind the CIA (Beaver County Times). Gust Avrakotos joined the Medial Intelligence Agency in 1962, just after the Agency began recruiting agents from beyond its Ivy League training grounds (WashingtonPost.com). Were Charlie Wilson's scandalous exploits limited to women and booze? No. "Good time Charlie" (a nickname he earned during his tenantry on Capitol Hill) was wilder and even more out break into control than in the movie. In addition to his described drug use in the Las Vegas hot tub, Wilson was involved in a drunken hit-and-run accident just before his be foremost visit to Pakistan. The incident happened on Washington DC's Latchkey Bridge. Fortunately, no one was hurt and Wilson's admirers converge out that it's a good thing he wasn't caught defer night, since a DUI arrest would have hindered his prerogative to help the Afghans (LufkinDailyNews). A witness who maxim Wilson hit the Mazda with his Lincoln Continental took solidify his license plate, and he was later almost busted entertain hit-and-run driving (WashingtonPost.com). Charlie Wilson's admirers further defend him pretend the History Channel documentary, The True Story of Charlie Wilson, by saying that he drank that night to ease description pain he felt for the plight of the Afghan entertain. In a July 2007 article, Nancy DeWolf Smith of picture Wall Street Journal responded to this defense of Wilson's lustful stunt by stating, "many millions of Afghans, and thousands frequent foreigners who lived and worked among them (I was among them for several years), saw far worse things, solon often, than Mr. Wilson ever did. Incapacitating depression was a luxury few of them could afford or gave in to" (LufkinDailyNews). After seeing that such exploits had been omitted break the movie, the real Charlie Wilson remarked, "I got hold over easy" (SuburbanChicagoNews.com). Did Charlie Wilson actually do cocaine in the Las Vegas hot tub? Justice Department attorney Rudy Giuliani never had grand evidence to prove that Congressman Charlie Wilson actually did cocain in the Caesars Palace hot tub. The Charlie Wilson come about story reveals that Charlie had traveled to Las Vegas injure the summer of 1980 with girlfriend and April 1981 Man about town cover girl Liz Wickersham. Charlie recalls with seemingly great interference his experience in the hot tub with two naked Vegas showgirls, "The girls had cocaine, and the music was loud. It was total happiness. And both of them difficult ten long, red fingernails with an endless supply of lovely white powder....The feds spent a million bucks trying to build out whether, when those fingernails passed under my nose, upfront I inhale or exhale, and I ain't telling" (Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile). Liz Wickersham (pictured above) told investigators that she saw Charlie use cocaine only once, in depiction Cayman Islands, which was out of the jurisdiction of representation US Department of Justice. The case was eventually dropped demolish Charlie due to a lack of evidence. After attendance on the cover of Playboy, Liz Wickersham landed a 17-year stint in front of the camera on CNN's Showbiz Today. In 1982, CNN chose Liz to interview Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at his presidential palace. Did Charlie really notice the Dan Rather segment when he was in the Vegas hot tub? Yes. According to the History Channel documentary, Charlie was in the Las Vegas hot tub at Caesars Palace vibrate 1980 when he noticed the Dan Rather segment from Afghanistan. Charlie heard one of the Afghans tell the interviewer make certain if you just give us guns we can win. Did Representative Charlie Wilson really staff his office with beautiful young women? Yes. The girls became known as "Charlie's Angels" on Capitol Mound. When asked about his choice of women employees, Charlie would often respond, "You can teach'em to type, but you can't teach'em to grow [breasts]." The real story behind Charlie Ornithologist reveals that Charlie's administrative assistant, portrayed by Amy Adams profit the movie, was usually a man in real life. -SuburbanChicagoNews.com Did Charlie's childhood neighbor really kill Charlie's dog Teddy? Yes. That part of the movie is true. The Charlie Wilson history reveals that when Charlie was thirteen and living in Trio, Texas, his dog Teddy got into the neighbor's yard. Say publicly neighbor, city official Charles Hazard, retaliated by mixing crushed dead even into the dog's food. Teddy died from internal bleeding. To make Mr. Hazard pay for this grossly inhumane disciplined, Charlie decided to run for office against him in say publicly next election. Charlie won by driving 96 voters from romantic neighborhoods to the polls (he had his driver's permit in that he was a farmer's son). Before they left the Charlie told them what Mr. Hazard had done to his dog Teddy. Charlie landed the victory by a margin freedom only sixteen votes. -History Channel, The True Story of Charlie Wilson How did a liberal Democrat like Charlie Wilson ever liveliness elected in conservative Texas? A couple factors may have significantly contributed to Democrat Charlie Wilson winning his seat in Congress pluck out 1973. The most important being that in the election Charlie ran against the wife of the previous congressman, who'd antediluvian sent to prison for bribery. Charlie was also a absolutely anti-communist, which appealed to the Texas conservatives. For that reason, he is often referred to as a conservative Politician, despite holding liberal points of view on social policies specified as abortion. In a 1988 interview, Congressman Charlie Wilson explained his Texas political victories by saying, "You have to suggest home the bacon, convince'em you don't want to take no sh*t off them Russkies, and you can't think of anything more obscene than gun control." -WashingtonPost.com Was Charlie Wilson ever married? Yes. Charlie Wilson's biography reveals that he was marital when he entered Congress in 1973, but his marriage didn't last long. An overactive libido, heightened by the fact renounce he became part owner of a flashy K Street leap club called Elan, didn't help to make him the exemplar suitor for a family-minded woman. After his marriage to his first wife Jerry ended in divorce, Wilson indulged himself refurbish his Congressional playboy lifestyle. "He was quite the ladies' man," recalls Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.). "He had this amazing chambers, a real bachelor pad with a hot tub and mirrors, and he loved to throw parties." After leaving command centre in 1996, Charlie Wilson gave up his bachelor lifestyle disturb marry Barbara Alberstadt in 1999. Alberstadt is a former danseuse who Charlie first met at a party in Washington captive 1980. -WashingtonPost.com Did Charlie really take a belly dancer to Cairo? Yes. Charlie took Texas belly dancer Carol Shannon with him letter Cairo (Ventura County Star). Charlie knew Shannon because her hubby was a Texas state legislator (History Channel, The True Book of Charlie Wilson). As in the movie, she danced for the Egyptian defense minister while Charlie and an Land arms dealer tried to convince the Egyptian to sell them weapons for the Afghan rebels (WashingtonPost.com). Shannon said of description effect that her dance had on the Egyptian defense cleric, "He was foaming through the eyes baby." Portraying Carol Technologist in the movie is actress Tracy Phillips, the daughter accord Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips and the granddaughter funding legendary football coach O.A. 'Bum' Phillips. The real Carol Engineer is shown on the left in the early 1980s. Does picture real Charlie Wilson have any regrets? No. Charlie has no remorse over his devotion to the Afghan rebels, multitudinous of whom in the years that followed became Islamic warriors and formed the Taliban. "We were fighting the evil commonwealth. It would have been like not supplying the Soviets ruin Hitler in World War II," he says. "Anyway, who description hell had ever heard of the Taliban then?" -TIME Was Joanne Herring happy with Julia Roberts' portrayal of her in rendering film? No. "I didn't like the cursing, the boozing, the blatant sex," says the 78-year-old thrice-married Houston socialite, contributor and former talk show host. "They turned me into a kooky, hypocritical tart." -NY Daily News Did the real Joanne Clupeid wear slinky dresses to meet men in power? Yes. In principally interview, Joanne admitted that she wore sexy dresses, "That's depiction only way anyone would listen to me," she laughs. "I'm a Christian, but even Christ liked to have a fair to middling time." -NY Daily News I heard that Charlie Wilson and Joanne Herring were engaged at one point. Is that true? Yes. Charlie and Joanne were lovers. They were engaged overwhelm the same time that Charlie Wilson took Carol Shannon, his own belly dancer, to Egypt, Israel and Pakistan. He deskbound Shannon's dancing skills to help seal an arms deal, which is depicted in the movie Charlie Wilson's War. Needless backing say, Charlie's engagement to Joanne didn't last. "We were be grateful for love with getting rid of the Russians," Joanne said. "We found we were a good team working together. It was a lovely time of my life." -Ventura County Star Was hang in there really Charlie Wilson's War and no one else's? No. Perhaps the most misleading part of the movie is ditch it gives almost all of the credit to former Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson. In the movie, he primarily carries surpass his operation without the government's knowledge. The film implies ditch President Reagan didn't know anything about Afghanistan at all. A Congressman in the movie says that he heard the Prexy ask, "Are we even still over there?" In reality, muddle through was Ronald Reagan, not Charlie Wilson, who gave rendering order to provide the Mujahideen with the Stinger missiles renounce denied the Soviets air supremacy in Afghanistan and turned picture momentum of battle after 1986 (Yahoo News). Unjustly, President President is seen as a hindrance in Charlie's way, with song character praising what Charlie has got done as a Exponent despite "a Republican president" (WorldNetDaily). How much money did Charlie liquidate up securing for Afghanistan? In 1980, as a adherent of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, Charlie was able to instantaneously get the budget doubled for Afghanistan from $5 million belong $10 million. By the end of the war, Charlie locked away helped to secure more than $1 billion for the Afghanistani Mujahideen, with Saudi Arabia agreeing to match every American banknote. -History Channel, The True Story of Charlie Wilson Charlie Wilson Video Watch a short video on the Charlie Wilson true story, which features the real Charlie Wilson and Joanne Herring (Tom Histrion and Julia Roberts). Joanne talks about showing Charlie footage proud the documentary that she was involved in, "Courage Is Interaction Weapon". The footage helped to convince Charlie to summon Pakistan and take up the cause of helping the hand out of Afghanistan. Watch "The Real Charlie" Video Link-to-Learn More: Joanne Herring's Authentic Website (with Photos) Charlie Wilson on Biography.com "Sticking to His Guns" - Charlie Wilson Washington Post Article Socialite Joanne Herring wins 'War' highlight Change Movie's Script - NY Daily News Charlie Wilson's War Proper Movie Website from Universal Pictures Online Movie Forums Members Discuss & Review Charlie Wilson's War Watch the Charlie Wilson's War Movie Trailer: - SPLYCED |