CharlieWilsonsWar Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Discuss: Who is Your Favorite Cinematic CIA Agent?
Filed under: Action », Drama », Thrillers », Fandom », Home Entertainment »
The Oscar-nominated Charlie Wilson's War hit DVD shelves today, and with that came yet another CIA agent on the big screen -- Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of real-life maverick agent Gust Avrakotos. It's a role that shows that playing by your own set of CIA rules isn't just a fictional theme picked up by filmmakers. Gust (with a 'T') plays by his own rules, whether that means using bugs to listen in on Charlie Wilson's conversations, or throwing fits at his boss and smashing office windows. He's a bit unhinged, but proves to be the perfect ally for a war championed outside the normal means -- and just so happens to be perfectly played by Hoffman.But Gust is just one of many, many CIA agents on the big screen -- ones that come from both real and fictional means. There is Dabney Coleman's Cooper in The Man with One Red Shoe, Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop in Spy Game, the retired and sneaky Jack Byrnes who is wary of the Focker family, Agent Bob Barnes in Syriana, Johnny Depp's Agent Sands in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, or wonderfully recruited men like Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge in Spies Like Us.
From comedy to drama, they're out there, but I ask you: Which cinematic CIA agents stand out in your mind? Are they by-the-book men, or rogue dudes like Gust who make things work on their own terms?
DVD Review: Charlie Wilson's War
Filed under: Comedy », New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », War »
There are two ways to watch Charlie Wilson's War. The first way is to watch it like we watch most movies -- go in to be entertained, to experience something outside of our scope of experience -- to leave our lives at the door and encounter something different. The other way is to be critical, having researched the situation upon which the film was based, to see how it diverges, and then decide whether the divergence is acceptable within the realm of what actually happened. One way will give you an entertaining experience. The other will probably result in the film getting under your skin.
I usually get pretty tense over large leaps in the truth. To this day, I grumble at the thought of Girl Interrupted, and the fact that they could insinuate that a character based on a real, live person could be indirectly involved in another's death when it simply isn't true. With Charlie Wilson's War, however, I wasn't completely weighed down by derailments from truth. Perhaps this is due to being warned after reading reviews like James' and Kim's, maybe it was due to the film more omitting facts than completely changing them, or perhaps it was the light delivery of the subject. Whatever the case, Charlie Wilson's War is an enjoyable film weighed down by its decisions of omission.
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