Charlie Wilson's Gunnin' for that #1 War

On the small screen: Charlie Wilson's War
On the big screen: Gunnin' for that #1 Spot

It's been a busy week, and we've got a lot to get through, troops. So let's begin. Charlie Wilson's War is out on video now (in fact, from the preview for the now-obsolete HD-DVD format, it's been out for a while). It's a based-on-a-true-story story based on, yes, the story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who has a strange amount of power in the 1980's – apperently, although we never really undrestand why, he can force the budget of covert ops up as high as he wants to. When a horny-but-Christian rich bitch (Julia Roberts) decides that America should start a war against the Soviets in Afganistan, guess who she teams up with? Why, Tom Hank's Charlie Wilson, of course. Things kinda crank up from there.

Penned by Aaron Sorkin of Sports Night/West Wing fame, it's no surprise that the whole movie crackles with wit and looks pretty no matter how fast it runs. In fact, it's a lot like a musical without any songs. The people click along too well to be real – which is jarring because we know they are real, or at least should be reasonable facsimiles of their real-life inspirations. Instead, Philip Seymour Hoffman's CIA agent is damn near omnisceient (and, btw, is probably the best role I've seen PSH do in a long while), Julia Roberts never cracks her brittle façade, and Charlie is never, but never, at a loss for words. Even for a politican, the comebacks get unbelievable after a while. Oh, and there's a war in the movie. It changes history. For good or evil? As PSH says to Wilson: "In the words of the Zen master: We'll see."

Talk about too good to be real, how about the eight high school kids in Gunnin' for that #1 Spot, a documentary produced by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. If War is a musical sans songs, Gunnin' is a music video that never stops. The movie follows eight boys as they gear up for the Elite 24 high-school game in Harlem's world famous Rucker Park. And…that's it. Yauch doesn't really bring anything else to this story other than a fish-eye camera and the best score/soundtrack of the year. The music in this documentary should get top billing, because the "stars" it supposedly follows get outshined every minute the music plays.

After setting up the Elite 24 game as a make-or-break event in the lives of our young players, Yauch then pulls back and treats us to an excruciatingly long introduction to the boys that lasts for almost half the movie. Remember Hoop Dreams? Remember why it was so fucking effective as a documentary? Because it lingered on a couple of personalities for literally years, letting the audience get to know them and feel for them as the world spun onward. Gunnin' is no Hoop Dreams. It covers about a week's worth of time, and the end of the Elite 24 game… well, anticlimactic is a good word to start with.

But what do a savvy political statement and a high school dunk-fest have in common? Money. The vast amounts of money that get spent behind closed doors. Whether it's the CIA buying arms from Israel to finance mujahadeen or Adidas passing out shoes to high school hotshots to enhance their viral marketing strategy, both these movies illustrate how little we really see of how things work. Charlie Wilson's War shows it on a massive scale, of course: the most expensive covert war in the history of ever. Gunnin' brings it down to a creepier and more personal level, when one of the player's younger brother lets the secret slip out on camera: "My big brother looks out for me. He buys me clothes, shoes, he gives me money." And where, do you think, does a teen basketball star with no job get all this dough? Well, which logo is he wearing? The Big Three shoe companies (the Axis of Feet, if you will) aren't out-and-out getting endorsments from these kids – they'll wait till Division I for that – but they're doing everything but in their efforts to use these boys for their own corporate gain. And many of the kids are happy to be used.

So the cycle continues, until the players tap out, or until they get usurped by the next hotshots in the fifth grade, or until they fail to meet the stratospheric standards set by the media and the promoters. Then they're dropped, left to fall back into a "normal" life that they've never learned to live. Will the adoration and money lavished on these kids in Gunnin' be well spent? Will they be role models? Will their endorsments light the way for millions of 12-year-old consumers? In the words of the Zen master: We'll see.

Score!
Charlie Wilson's War: 6.7
Gunnin' for that #1 Spot: 5.5