Texans in Afghanistan

Having seen the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men (not a bad effort, but definitely overrated) recently, Charlie Wilson's War is the second film I've seen this year in which the main characters are Texans. Quite appropriate realy as a ral life Texan in a position of power will be out of a job soon!

Set in the 1980s during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Tom Hanks is the title role, a Texan congressman with a taste for whisky, women and cocaine, the unlikely hero (or antihero perhaps?) whose successful lobbying and diplomacy helps arm the Mujahadin and force the withdrawal of the Soviet military their country.

What ensues is a tangled web of unlikely allies with the Americans, Israelis, Saudis, Egyptians and Pakistanis collaborating to fund a covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Wilson forging an alliance with the then Pakistani president General Zia is one of the more revealing aspects of the story.

There's a strong supporting cast with Julia Roberts as Wilson's part time mistress, a Texan millionaire with sympathies towards the Afghan cause and Philip Seymour Hoffman a CIA operative specialising in Afghanistan.
The arid mountainous landscapes of Morocco successfully resemble Afghanistan, as was the case in a Timothy Dalton James Bond. (Yes, I'm one of those obsessive anoraks who stay behind to read the end credits).

There is effective use of CGI effects in portraying explosions intermingled with actual archive footage from the time of the Soviet occupation. The "bad guys" are clearly the Russians. Scenes of Russian helicopters massacring Afghan civilians by bombing entire towns helps enforce this perception. What the Soviets did in Afghanistan cannot be condoned of course, but the film ignores the fact that the US militaty was doing similar things in Vietnam and Nicaragua. However, one wonders if there is an element of political satire here.

The topicality of the film is omnipresent in that it alludes subtly to the events of present day Afghanistan, not to mention Iraq. It is heavily hinted at towards the finish that the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan is far from the end of trouble in the region. Like a vicious circle the Americans arm the Afghans to fight and defeat the Russians, a scenario which eventually leads to the Taliban coming to power, the events of September 11 2001 and the ongoing "war on terror".

Greatest Films of the '80s - Part 2

Continuing on from a popular topic of conversation in student union bars up and down the county, here's the remainder of my list:

Company of Wolves - Neil Jordan's post-modernist reinterpretation of Little Red Riding Hood story - atmospheric, surreal and mind-bogglingly captivating

Gandhi - Dickie Attenborough's epic biopic of the man who liberated India, with Ben Kingsley in the title role

Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources - Technically two films, but inextricably linked so I'll count them as one for the purposes of this poll - tales of hardship, tragedy and disputed land ownership among small farmers amidst the breathtaking scenery of rural Provence. With some of the best known names in French cinema including Gerard Depardieu, Yves Montand, Daniel Auteil and Emanuelle Beart. Based on the novels by Marcel Pagnol. Just thinking about it brings back memories of A-level French all those years ago.

Cinema Paradiso - Giuseppe Tornatore's account of a young boy's coming of age in a Sicilian village and his love of the cinema

This is Spinal TapRob Reiner (alias Marin di Bergi's) spoof rock documentary which follows the trials and tribulations of a past-their-sell-by-date rock band their disastrous tour of America. Uncannily accuate it paved the way for the "mockumentary" genre of comedy of which The Office would become one of the most celebrated examples.

Greatest Films of the '80s

A few nights ago (New Year's Eve to be precise, but that's soooo last year) I watched part of a programme on TV which claimed to be a rundown of the greatest films of the 1980s. Except that the films covered were far from "great". A more appropriate title would have been "Biggest Box Office blockbusters of the '80s". Ok, they did pick a few decent films like Dead Poets Society, Good Morning Vietnam, Crocodile Dundee and Rain Man, but such titles didn't fit in well with crap such as Top Gun, Terminator or Breakfast Club. Also on the list was Back to the Future, which I suppose is a great film if you're a 12-year old, (which I was back in 1986 when it was showing at the local cinema), but when you're 34 it doesn't quite have the same appeal.

Rather than getting experts like Mark Cousins, Derek Malcolm or Philip French in to talk about the films, the celebrated luminaries on the show included ex-junkie and desperately unfunny "comedian", the highly irritating Russell Brand. Incidentally, a friend suggested going to see the new St Trinians film which has just come out. When I mentioned to her that Brand was in it, she quickly changed her mind.

So off the top of my head, without thinking to much about it or googling anything, I've come up with my own top 11 films of the '80s. In no particular order:

The Mission - Roland Joffe's moving tale of 18th century Jesuit missionaries living amongst a tribe in Indians in the South American jungles and their battle against the colonial powers of Spain and Portugal, who with the support of the church hierarchy wish to enslave the natives and carve up the territories for their own selfish gains. Bob de Niro, Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson on top form as Jesuit priests, spectacular location filming in Colombia and Argentina and a haunting soundtrack by one of the world's greatest composers Ennio Morricone.

Cry Freedom - Dickie Attenborough's inspirational account of the life and death of South African political activist Steve Biko (Denzel Washington) and his friendship with white anti-apartheid campaigner Donald Woods (Kevin Kline)

Withnail and I - Paul McGann and Richard E Grant get up to high jinks as two unemployed actors on a mad weekend at a remote country cottage.

The King of Comedy - Bob de Niro as the wannabe comedian who'll do anything to get on TV - one of Martin Scorcese's most underrated films.

Once Upon A Time in America - Master of the spaghetti western Sergio Leone turns his attention to immigrants and gangsterism in New York from prohibition to the present day in a 4-hour epic spanning several decades. Memorable soundtrack by Leone's long time collaborator Ennio Morricone.

OK, that's 5 so far. I don't have time to list the rest, so I'll do them in a future post.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Shoot 'em up: Morecambe and Wise glorifying gun crime?

The papers report the controversy surrounding the poster for the film Shoot'Em Up. The poster has been accused of being in bad taste as it allegedly glorifies gun crime. I suppose the complainants have a point, particularly as the actor depicted, Paul Giamatti bears an uncanny resemblance to the late comedian Eric Morecambe, one half of the celebrated double act Morecambe and Wise. Perhaps the film's publicists should "wise" up and design a more tasteful poster.
Cue deathly, eerie silence punctuated by the swooshing of tumbleweeds in the wind and the distant clanging of a funeral bell…the day job is still intact

Social Realist Cinema: Of Shane Meadows and Pawel Pawlikowski

I spent Friday the 13th of this month (the date was purely coincidental!) in Oxford at a film conference "The Realist Impulse", where I gave a presentation on the films of Shane "This is England/TwentyFourSeven/Dead Man's Shoes/A Room for Romeo Brass" Meadows.

Among the delegates was film-maker Pawel Pawlikowski, director of two recent British flicks of note, The Last Resort and My Summer of Love, both coincidentally starring Paddy Considine, a long-time associate of the aforementioned Mr Meadows. A colourful and highly energetic character by all accounts, Pawel made some priceless contributions to the discussions and played some excerpts from his forthcoming film The Restraint of Beasts, based on the award-winning novel by Magnus Mills.

Let it lie

“You wouldn’t let it lie!” was a catchphrase made famous in the 1990s by the comic duo Reeves and Mortimer. I heard a rap on the radio this morning which used a sample from Bach’s Air on the G-string as background to the awful lyrics. The Bach tune is a classic composition which found fame in the 1980s as the chilled out theme tune to the Hamlet cigar ads on TV. You don’t see cigar ads on TV any more, which is probably a good thing, but what irritates me is that contemporary manufactured music constantly ruins classic tunes by using them as samples. The cinematic industry is committing a similar felony by making totally unnecessary remakes of classic films. What was the point of the recent remakes of The Wicker Man or Alfie? Two gems of cinema which were a product of their time and starring actors of the day in their element. I haven’t seen either of the remade versions, nor do I intend to. For the sake of future generations who want to appreciate good cinema and music this defilement by cashing in on the success of the original has got to stop. Here endeth my rant for the day.


The one that got away
I was alerted to this quite amazing clip on YouTube recently. Although it’s quite long at 8 minutes, it’s worth watching in its entirety. It must be a one in a million event, a bizarre chain of events – Although apparently shot by an amateur, it must be every wildlife film-maker’s dream.

Steven Spielberg's Munich

I often find that a trip to the cinema on a Sunday evening can help alleviate the misery of impending doom that is the beginning of another working week. A deeply thought-provoking film is a particularly useful way of refreshing the mind when Monday morning looms ominously on the horizon. So with an open mind I went to see the above. And here are my thoughts on it:

Spielberg’s account of an Israeli secret service cell assigned with the task of tracking down and assassinating the perpetrators of the terrorist acts during the 1972 Munich Olympics is a tense, gripping film. It works well as an entertaining political thriller in its own right, and it's easy to forget that it's based on real events, although it's not clear to what extent the scenes depicted are factual, or to what degree they are fictionalised. However the use of real news archive footage from the era works well alongside the dramatised events. The film is shot through a dark filter, which adds to the ominous tone and effectively puts into context the chilling central theme with numerous twists and turns in the plot.

Throughout the course of approximately two and a half hours the viewer is propelled into a sinister, shadowy world of espionage, state-licensed terrorism, intelligence, ruthless renegade agents, blood money and cloak-and-dagger deals. The global political climate of the 1970s as an era of international terrorism is firmly put into context, with fleeting references to various paramilitary organisations such as the Red Army Faction, ETA, IRA, PLO and notorious international terrorist Carlos the Jackal.

The events unfold from the point of view of Avner Kaufman, a young Mossad agent who is drafted into the close-knit cell of fellow hitmen to eliminate the ring leaders of the pro-Palestinian Black September group. Eric Bana is superb in his portrayal of the central character, whose pregnant wife is blissfully unaware of his true occupation. The juxtaposition of Kaufman's parallel lives as cold-blooded killer and family man is highly effective.

There is a strong supporting cast of accomplished actors which includes Ciarán Hinds (almost unrecognisable from his recent portrayal of Gaius Julius Caesar in the recent BBC epic Rome), the new James Bond Daniel Craig, versatile Australian actor Geoffrey Rush and French actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz.


The action follows the cell as they move from one location to another in search of a target, with Rome, Paris, London, Cyprus and Beirut all featuring. The initial concept of fighting for the Jewish cause (as their amoral handlers would have them believe) soon falls by the wayside with the revelation that things aren’t quite what they seem. It seems that a dirty war of attrition is being waged among the global espionage networks and terrorist groups, with the distinction between the two becoming more and more blurred as the story develops. The cancerous culture of amorality is not unlike that depicted in the spaghetti westerns or Mafia films, where there are no such things as "good guys" and "bad guys". Spielberg's moral message is obvious throughout the film - fighting one form of terrorism with another can never be justified. In short, violence simply breeds more violence and there are no winners in such a war. This becomes apparent along the way, when civilians are accidentally caught up in the crossfire and Kaufman, haunted by constant flashbacks of Munich begins to question the morality of his actions. Of particular significance is the subtly hidden message in the very last shot, with chilling allusions to another act of mass terrorism which would be perpetrated three decades later.

Not surprisingly the film has its fair share of bloodshed and violence with graphic scenes of explosions and shootings which leave little to the imagination. It is however not without its humorous moments.


More than thirty years on from the aftermath of Munich, the underlying theme remains as topical as ever. The prevailing climate of fear and uncertainty in the wake of 9/11 is omnipresent throughout the film. Current events such as the fundamentalist furore over the Danish cartoons, the rise of Hamas in Palestine and the ongoing volatile situation in Iraq all seem relevant to the story. A story which is not yet over.

Definitely worth seeing.

Ciarán Ward