Charlie Wilson's War

[onager]

Anybody else seen this? Probably everybody except me already...

If you haven't, it's loaded with hypocritical religious characters and witty snark about religion in general. (The witty part makes sense. The script was written by Aaron Sorkin, former West Wing writer among other things.)

This starts in the first 5 minutes, when Texas Congressman Wilson (Tom Hanks) is visited by an irate constituent. The ACLU is suing to get a Nativity scene removed from the firehouse lawn.

The Bible-thumping visitor wants Wilson to call a Federal judge and ORDER him to leave Baby Jesus alone.

"Well, I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because a shit-load of really good laws says I can't."

His final advice: "There are 28 Baptist churches within a mile of that firehouse. Move your nativity scene to one of the churches and you don't have a problem."

A key character is Houston socialite/heiress Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts). In raising money for Islamic Fundamentalists in Afghanistan, Herring constantly feels moved to preach a Xian Fundamentalist message about Jebus changing her life.

One of my favorite scenes is when the cranky CIA agent (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) tells Wilson that Herring needs to tone down her preaching.

"She's turning this into a religious war. America doesn't fight religious wars. That's why I like living here."

Atheist Amen!

[TZ]

1. America doesn't fight religious wars....

I think somebody needs to tell Chimpy's generals in Iraq this. They seem to feel otherwise.
Of all the hideousness of the Iraq war, to me hearing several generals speak of this as being a modern day crusade..That was maybe the most nauseating thing right there..And since the commander in chief is responsible for his generals..To me right there alone is stuff that proves Bush should be impeached.

[Kolesar]

2. Pat Robertson thought of the conquest of Iraq as a religious war

I think that is what made the war a "perfect" issue for the Republicans. It reinforced their prejudices at a base level.

[progressoid]

3. "Because a shit-load of really good laws says I can't."

That's great!

Of course, the fundtards would say that those are really bad laws.