Charlie Wilson's War (2007)


Tom Hanks               Charlie Wilson
Julia Roberts           Joanne Herring
Philip Seymour Hoffman  Gust Avrakotos
Amy Adams               Bonnie Bach
Shiri Appleby           Charlie s Angel
Cyia Batten             Stacy
P.J. Byrne              Jim Van Wagenen
Christopher Denham      Mike Vickers
Russell Edge            Agent Wells
Rizwan Manji            Colonel Mahmood
Brian Markinson         Paul Brown
Navid Negahban          Refugee Camp Translator
Om Puri                 President Zia
Faran Tahir             Brigadier Rashid
Jud Tylor               Crystal Lee
Emily Blunt             Jane Liddle
Ken Stott               Zvi
John Slattery           Cravely
Denis O'Hare            Harold Holt
Mary Bonner Baker       Charlie’s Angel
Ned Beatty              Doc Long

Directed by:            Mike Nichols
Produced by:            Celia D. Costas, Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeff Skoll


Based on the true story of how Charlie Wilson, an alcoholic womanizer and Texas congressman, persuaded 
the CIA to train and arm resistance fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union. With the help 
of rogue CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, the two men supplied money, training and a team of military experts 
that turned the ill-equipped Afghan freedom-fighters into a force that brought the Red Army to a stalemate 
and set the stage for conflicts in the Middle East that still rage to this day.

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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."