Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Reel People: Tom Hanks is Charles Wilson

The film is Charlie Wilson's War based on the 2002 non-fiction book written by the recenetly deceased journalist and 60 minutes producter George Crilie.

Tom Hanks plays the title role of Charlie Wilson, a Texas Congressman from small town Texas (Trinity, TX) who fought for many liberal causes (labor regulations, medicaid, and abortion rights). Charles Wilson became a lieutenant in the navy and served a post at the pentagon, despite the fact that he did poorly at the naval academy and is said to have had more demerits than any other graduate of the naval academy.

Charles Wilson never married, and was known for having many women around him. Wilson was a member of house of representatives from 1961-1967, then was a member of the senate from 1967-1973, and then returned to the house from 1973-1997.

Wilson was largely involved with the appropriations committee, especially in the early 1980's were he urged the CIA to increase funds to Afghanastan in 1982 to help the Muslim opposition group to fight against the Soviet Union during the cold war.

The film centers around these events and co-stars award winners/nominees Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Emily Blunt. The film is directed by Mike Nicols (The Graduate, the Remains of the Day, Working Girl). The film is written by Aaron Sorkin who wrote over half of the episodes for the West Wing.

This biographical film could certainly earn Hanks some critical awards attention for his portrayl of the Real (Reel) Person.

Related Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

RC, this is a great series. Keep it up! I'm trying to finish up my post on 2007 films, so I'm walking the same ground you are right now.

Thanks for dropping by. I'm going to post another cap contest today.

Anonymous said...

FYI-Charlie Wilson was a Member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1961-1967, then a Member of the Texas State Senate from 1967-1973 and finally a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973-1997.

Anonymous said...

HE WAS MARRIED! Parents went to wedding in 1962.

Anonymous said...

Anyone intersted in viewing Charlies congressional papers or photo can go to
http://libweb.sfasu.edu/proser/etrc/collections/manuscript/personal/wilsoncharles/index.html