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‘Charlie Did It’
Since 1789, some 12, 420 Americans have served in the U.S. House of Representatives. I know of only three who have had full-length motion pictures made about them, and only one specifically related to his service in that chamber. Perhaps there are others: Davy Crockett (TN), Abraham Lincoln (IL), and Charlie Wilson (TX).
Books? Sure, lots of them, but no movies. US Senators haven’t fared much better, at least real ones. I’m sure my reader will correct me if I’ve missed anyone. I probably have.
“Charlie Wilson’s War” was a 2007 epic starring Tom Hanks in the lead role as US Rep. Charles Wilson (D-TX). The legendary Fess Parker famously portrayed Davy Crockett in a popular television series, and Billy Bob Thornton portrayed Crockett in 2004 in The Alamo. Fourteen actors have portrayed Abraham Lincoln, including the late Henry Fonda, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Gregory Peck, and even Kris Kristofferson (who is very much still alive), but perhaps best by Daniel Day-Lewis in 2012.
How did Wilson, the Lufkin, Texas native and Naval Academy graduate who served in the US House from a rural southeastern Texas district from 1972 until late 1996 manage to get a movie featured about him?
One word: Afghanistan.
Charlie Wilson was the kind of congressional Democrat that doesn’t much exist today, protestations to the contrary aside. Sure, he was liberal on many social issues (pro-abortion, strongly pro Medicare, and consistently working to raise the minimum wage) and supported then-traditional Democratic constituencies, such as labor. He was also an American patriot. Having been raised during World War II, he became intensely interested in international issues with a strong anti-communist bent. And being from rural east Texas, he had a strong penchant for the underdog.
The Texas congressional district Wilson represented for much of his career bears no resemblance to the 2nd Congressional District that former Navy Seal, Republican, and US Rep. Dan Crenshaw represents today. Crenshaw’s 2nd District is suburban/urban Houston; Wilson’s 2nd District was deeply rural east Texas. But I think Wilson would have liked his successor and fellow Naval officer, Crenshaw.
As far as other congressmen in films, American Hustle had congressmen busted in Abscam, but I can’t remember if they used any real names.
I’ve got it on DVD. I haven’t watched it. I guess I will now.
Only eleven years after his death, it’s difficult to imagine anyone with Good Time Charlie’s flamboyant lifestyle or affection for mind-altering chemicals lasting five minutes in the current political and social climate, even if he is a Democrat.
Good catch; yes they did use their names, especially one disgraced Democratic Congressman, Michael “Ozzie” Myers (there were others), who was caught last year engaged in election fraud. And I’m reminded of Casino Jack, the biopic about discredited & jailed ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff (portrayed, appropriately, by Kevin Spacey), which featured, briefly, a couple of GOP House members (one of whom also went to jail).
Problem is, we have people here whose sons (mostly) are being sent back to fight and possibly die in a war we never intended to win.
I’m with @instugator. We should have leveled the place (from the air) back in 2001 and told them never to mess with us again, or we’d be back with ten times the firepower.
We’re sick to death of our government treating Americans as expendable for some high minded ideas of nation building. And anyone who voted for Joe Biden as CinC overseeing this disaster should take a long walk off a short pier. Shameful.
I am still trying to figure out how we got to this point in Afganistan, and basically everywhere else, but Kelly, you have described the long bizarre descent extremely well. There will be many comparisons to the fall of Saigon but I fear the outcome will be far worse. Vietnam, after brutal suffering through the initial communist regime, has emerged as a modern mostly capitalist nation. If there are seeds left behind in the rubish of what we call Afganistan to produce anything as prosperous as Vietnam I will be amazed.
I think it might be helpful for everyone to pay a little attention to this thread from a former Afghan vet and expert on things there who worked for both Bush and Obama. It is illuminating and informative. You don’t have to agree, but the problem isn’t with us leaving; it’s how we’re conducting the handover and returning to the status quo from 20 years ago. And that’s a bad place.
I also must highlight this fabulous post by John Ellis on the implications of our Afghan withdrawal.
Well of course, LBJ and George H. W. Bush both former congressman have been portrayed in numerous films.
In the film “Lincoln”, a number of congressmen were shown/featured
Thaddeus Stevens
Fernando Woods
Preston Blair
I know he isn’t serving in office, but what about Hunter Biden. Anyone?
Yup. I don’t know why Charlie Wilson would be happy with his legacy because isn’t all that has happened since we trained and armed Osama bin Laden his legacy? Including the tragedy we are about to witness?
1. That photo is a fake. The color original is by Hugh Van Es of UPI. Look it up.
A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter on top of a building a half mile from the U.S. Embassy.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
2. The photo documents the evacuation from the roof of the CIA complex by an Air America UH1. NOT the US embassy, where the evacuation was done by USMC CH46 helicopters from the embassy garden.
Minor points. But accuracy is a virtue.