Tom Hanks and Charlie Wilson Interview (page 3 of 4)

The Secret War Today

RD: Tom, "Charlie Wilson's War" is more complicated than some of your other films. I'm thinking of "Saving Private Ryan," in which we know whom to cheer for every moment.

Hanks: This is a tale that deals with something that is probably impossible to capture on film: how politics works. Politics and storytelling in movies are antithetical processes, because in movies you always have to see progress, and in politics you don't always get progress. My desire was to make as complex a movie as possible: Here's what happened, here are the people who did it, and here's how they did it. I think we've done okay. My hope is that [viewers] spend time talking about this movie when it's over -- what it meant, what the repercussions were, what was good or bad about it.

RD: In the film, we see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes in Washington. Do Americans hear enough news with those kinds of details?

Hanks: I don't want to get on a soapbox, but by and large our popular media isn't that interested in telling the whole story, because they can't wrap it up succinctly. There's not always a good guy and a bad guy. If you try to actually explain the particulars of a complicated issue, you're going to get laughed at and told, "Why don't you just give $20 to National Public Radio? Maybe they'll do a story about that on All Things Considered."

Hanks: Charlie, do you think you could have gotten away with this today? Given the media now -- with things like the Drudge Report and MSNBC and bloggers -- what would have happened to your secret war?

Wilson: We couldn't have done it.

Hanks: I don't think so either. I'm one of these Americans who are trying to figure out if the constant blaring of the media, from the left and the right, has taken us to a point where there's no legitimate discussion. And as a result, there's no chance of balance and respectful compromise. How do you arrive at a point where you get any sort of overall bigger picture?

RD: Speaking of the big picture, there have been reports recently that Al Qaeda is using our own leftover weapons against us, and that fighters we trained 20 years ago are attacking Americans and our allies. True or false?

Wilson: No way. There's not a bullet that's still on the shelf over there. They fired up everything they got from us a hundred times over. And they don't have anything but AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. The Afghans never gave Al Qaeda Stinger missiles, for instance, thank the Lord.

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