After Philip Seymour Hoffman’s untimely and tragic death on Sunday, I’m working my way through his back-catalogue, and after a friend sent me a clip of Charlie Wilson’s War, it shot straight to the top of my list. Here’s the clip. As it’s pretty early on in the film, it won’t spoil it for you. Yes, that is the sleazebag from Mad Men you see in the scene.

So, the film. It’s based on a true story, and I don’t want to give too much away, so here it is very briefly: Charlie Wilson was a Texan politician who, in the 1980s, was representing a State who really didn’t ask very much of him and therefore he had a lot of time on his hands. He became involved in some defence Board or another, not on a huge level by all means because he was just a local politician in Texas. One of the earliest scenes we see is him finding backhanded ways to double the budget for this particular matter from five to ten million dollars. Just because he could. He had nothing more pressing. Peanuts, right?

He is surrounded by a posse of beautiful women; he only employs women in his office, most of whom have a lot of cleavage or butt on show. He drinks whisky like it’s oxygen, attends events with strippers and indulges in recreational drugs, the use of which we don’t actually see, but despite that, he isn’t actually a massive douchebag, and you’re quite unlikely to hate him. And the reason is as follows. Despite being in a job with not much to do, Wilson was a passionate man, and when this particular cause grabbed his attention, he grabbed hold of it like a bulldog and would not let go. This is the point in which the film changes. Up until then you may only view Wilson as a drunkard without a cause (rather, a man who drinks a lot). Well, Wilson gets his cause. And my goodness he is a man who makes good on his promises. Guns? LET’S BUY THEM ALL THE GUNS.

I’d say the first half is action/almost comedy and the second half drama. Julia Roberts does an okay performance, Hoffman is excellent, Hanks went from having me roll my eyes at his predictability (and kick him in the nuts for the character) to making me want to give him a high five for his performance (and the previously unknown grown-upness of Charlie Wilson). That said, there’s no Hollywood ending. There never is with wars.

I previously knew nothing about this conflict and the story involving Wilson is almost so shocking as to be surreal to me; and for that, I implore people to watch it; watch, learn, have a few laughs along the way.

Despite the rampant sexism I give it a solid 7.5-8.0/10.

Edit: there's some pretty poor English in this post, sorry about that.