With an illustrious cast, a brilliant script writer, and a colorful, larger-than-life subject, Charlie Wilson's War is a movie that could have been so much more.

Unfortunately, among the illustrious cast, only Hoffman fulfilled the potential of his character among the trio. Hanks is simply far too clean and upright to be the swinging alcoholic congressman; given the impeccable casting in other Sorkin movies, I am convinced that there are better candidates for this character. Roberts' character is underwritten, without history, motivation, nor surprises.

As for the story, well, the history was obviously not as simple as it was told in the movie. I'm greatly disappointed by the lack of depth in Sorkin's simplistic script, which lacks even his signature intelligent banters. There could have been more emphasis on the roles that ignorance, domestic politics, and previous diplomatic snafus played in the formation of US foreign policy and the country's consistently dismal performance in long term nation building. While the ending poignantly reminds the audience of the current predicament in Iraq, attention should also have been drawn to how the Talibans and Bin Laden rose from the ashes of the Soviet-Afghan war as a result of the US desertion, which eventually led to 9/11 and right back to the Iraq mess we have today.

With any luck, perhaps the (American) audience may start asking themselves what kind of country does the US want to be: Should the US be promoting, keeping, or "making" peace? Should she be the world police and fight the good fights (and body bags in return) in remote countries? Can pre-emptive strikes ever be justified? How is homeland security affected by the US invasions into other countries? What moral and legal authority does the US have on its own that would allow it to go out unilaterally and perform "nation building"? What are the roles of military and diplomacy when the battle has been won but the war ain't over?

These are the topic that I believe form the premise of war. To me, good war movies always prompt the audience to think about some of these questions. Charlie Wilson's War is, of course, not a generic war movie, but it has such great potential (and Sorkin!) to ask the above. Without doing so, the movie fails to highlight the significance of Charlie Wilson's actions and becomes merely a shallow tale of a slightly eccentric congressman and his illicit lover.

Further readings:

• Ghost Wars, a comprehensive history of the CIA's involvement in Afghanistan
• Fiasco, regarding another instance when the US forgot to plan for the aftermath before waging a war