Salt Lake Tribune Review
You ever wonder how Afghanistan - you know, the place the United States invaded where Osama bin Laden actually was - became the hot spot for terrorism and extremism that prompted our first post-9/11 invasion?
Two new movies try to answer that question, though their approaches are as different as can be.
The political-satirical comedy “Charlie Wilson's War,” based on
George Crile's nonfiction best-seller, looks at Afghanistan from the outside in, through the history of the United States' covert operations there in the early 1980s. “The Kite Runner,” a drama based on
Khaled Hosseini's novel, examines life in Afghanistan during that time for two boys with radically different fates.
Charlie Wilson was a Texas congressman who, as played by
Tom Hanks, lived the high life his constituents scarcely knew. When the movie introduces him, Charlie is in a Las Vegas hot tub with a
Playboy cover girl and other naked ladies, and booze and drugs are in copious supply. But a TV report from Dan Rather, covering the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and the struggles of the rebel mujahedeen fighters, catches Charlie's attention.
Wilson - who's also fighting off a corruption investigation mounted by some then-unknown prosecutor named Giuliani - forms an odd alliance with two quite different people: Joanne Herring (
Julia Roberts), a right-wing Houston socialite with a magic Rolodex; and Gust Avrakotos (
Philip Seymour Hoffman), a shambling CIA agent who cuts through the bureaucratic double-talk. And, with his position on the intelligence appropriations committee, Wilson manages to send U.S. covert aid to the mujahedeen through the roof.
Director
Mike Nichols (“The Graduate,” “Primary Colors”) and screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) hit a satisfying balance between the absurdities of Wilson's adventures (like seeking weapons for Muslim freedom fighters from the Israelis) and the seriousness of the Afghani people's plight. The funniest scene in the movie is a door-slamming farce as Wilson juggles Avrakotos' presence and the crisis management of his buxom staffers.
Alas, for all the down-and-dirty of covert ops and back-channel diplomacy depicted in “Charlie Wilson's War,” the movie feels a little too scrubbed, too sanitized. Wilson's character feels watered-down, and the movie doesn't fill in the historical gaps (such as how after the Soviets retreated, the power vacuum left by the feuding mujahedeen allowed the Taliban to take over).
“The Kite Runner” fills some of those gaps and puts a human face to Afghanistan's plight under the Soviets and the Taliban.
It starts as a simple story, a friendship between two Kabul boys: Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi), the son of a prominent figure, and Hassan, the son of the professor's servant. Though they are of different ethnic groups - Amir is Pashtu, Hassan is Hazara - the boys are loyal friends and compete as a team in a Kabul kite-flying tournament.
After the tournament, Amir witnesses some older boys tormenting Hassan and ultimately gang-raping him. Amir masks his cowardice by turning his back on Hassan - and soon the friendship is over.
The story moves ahead 20 years, and Amir (played as an adult by “United 93” co-star
Khalid Abdalla) is living in America. He falls in love with and marries another Afghan immigrant, Soraya (
Atossa Leoni), and pursues his dream to be a writer. But a call from his father's old business partner (
Shaun Toub), offering “a way to be good again,” spurs Amir to return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Director
Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland”) and screenwriter
David Benioff (“Troy,” “25th Hour”) sensitively handle the breakdown of Amir and Hassan's friendship. They also grasp the tension between the hardship of those who remained in Afghanistan and the guilt of those who fled. They falter a bit in the later passages, including an action sequence that feels more at home in a popcorn thriller than a serious drama.
Neither “Charlie Wilson's War” nor “The Kite Runner” offers the whole picture of Afghanistan, and maybe it's unfair to expect one movie to do so. Together, though, they go far in illuminating the issues and the people of that troubled land.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
The rundown: This true-life story of a Texas congressman (
Tom Hanks) who wheedles to get covert aid to Afghanistan rebels is satirically funny, but needs more bite. 97 minutes. (S.P.M.)
Synopsis: Charlie Wilson was a bachelor congressman from Texas who had a habit of showing up in hot tubs with strippers and cocaine. His Good Time Charlie exterior, however, masked an extraordinary mind, a deep sense of patriotism and a passion for the underdog, and in the early 1980s the underdog was Afghanistan--which had just been brutally invaded by the Russians. Charlie''s longtime friend and patron and sometime lover was Joanne Herring, one of the wealthiest women in Texas and a virulent anti-communist. Believing the American response to the Russian invasion was anemic at best, she prods Charlie into doing more for the Mujahideen (Afghan freedom fighters). Charlie''s partner in this uphill endeavor is CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar operative in a company of Ivy League blue bloods. Together, the three of them--Charlie, Joanne and Gust--travel the world to form unlikely alliances among the Pakistanis, Israelis, Egyptians, arms dealers, law makers and a belly dancer. Their success was remarkable. Funding for covert operations against the Soviets went from $5 million to $1 billion annually. The Red Army retreated out of Afghanistan. When asked how a group of peasants was able to deliver such a decisive blow to the army of a superpower, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq responded simply, Charlie did it.
