wilson's war
Robin King
Co-producer and cameraman for the film “Courage Is Our Weapon”. It Was Robin King’s idea to fight the Soviet troops in Afghanistan and use the stinger missiles as shown in the movie “Courage is Our Weapon”.
It was Charlie Fawcett’s cut down and unfinished version of the original film (Courage is Our Weapon) that Tom Hanks mentioned in the film, Charlie Wilson’s War, not Courage is Our Weapon.
What was Charlie Wilson’s War?
Why and how did you (Robin King) get involved?
I was recruited because I had already been around the world several times making documentary films and had my own equipment. Charles Fawcett had some experience in the film industry as an actor / stuntman.
What was the impact of your involvement and the film?
While filming I realized that the Afghans really wanted to fight and return to Afghanistan which of course was a good thing for Pakistan. I also thought it was very important to show the geopolitics (the reason why the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and what their goals were.)
I had to fight to get these two things put in the film. Everyone was opposed to me on this including the Pakistani film crew because it went against the wishes of President Zia who didn’t want to provoke or give the Soviet Union an excuse to invade Pakistan which is what they really wanted to do; get access to the warm water ports and the straits of Hormuz where all the oil was flowing from.
President of Pakistan
Zia Ul Haq
Why aren’t you in the movie?
I am not in the film because I am not in the book. The reason I’m not in the book is because George Crile called to interview me, and I hung up on him because he told me he had been a producer with 60 minutes. I had friends at 60 minutes, I called them to verify, but none had ever heard of George Crile. Well, it turned out he had been an outside line producer.
At the same time, the FBI was calling a lot of people, harassing them, and pretending to be reporters and survey takers and a lot of things that they were not. It was a payback for Iran-contra and a little war that political parties played with each other.
Whom else did you work with?
Charles Fawcett got into a fight with the Pakistani director and inadvertently ran the Pakistani film crew off. This ended up being a blessing and a curse. The curse being the Pakistanis took all the unused film stock and a lot of the funding; but the blessing being I got moved up into a more senior position in the film and was able to get my ideas about fighting the Soviets, arming the Afghans, using the stinger missiles and the geopolitics inserted into the film.
THE GREAT ORSON WELLES
One Day,
Charles Fawcett and I were in the editing room and we read an article in the paper about Orson Welles condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and he seemed to be looking for a project about the war to be involved in. So Charles Fawcett and I, after some jokes, decided to contact him about narrating our film. To our astonishment, he contacted us back and said to just send it to him and he would narrate it. Charles Fawcett and I could not believe it! Orson Welles narrated the film for free, unbelievable.
How does the book compare to the film?
George Crile took a long time to finish the book. He attempted the original interviews of myself and everyone else back in the late ’80s early ’90s but didn’t finish the book until the early 2000s where it became a New York Times number one bestseller, and because of that, Tom Hanks’ production company, Playtone, purchased the movie rights to the film.
I had friends at 60 minutes I called them and none had ever heard of George Crile. well, turns out he had been an outside line producer. But during this time that he was interviewing everyone the FBI was going around and asking a lot of questions and harassing people pretending to be reporters and survey takers and a lot of things that they weren’t. It was atty. Gen. Dick thornberg and Republican payback against the Democrats whom Charlie Wilson was and their Congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra affair from one of the lead prosecutors was Jerry Springer of all things.I was actually out to dinner with the national security advisor Robert McFarland’s daughter The night that he tried to commit suicide over Iran-Contra.
One day in the production office Charles fawcett and I were reading the herald Tribune and came across an interview of Orson Welles in which he was roundly condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and seem to be looking around for a project or something to get involved with. I never forget Charles fawcett looking over his readers at me going ‘would nt be something if we could get Orson Welles involved in our project? and I said ‘yeah wouldn’t that be something!’ we both laughed and then I said well you know what have we got to lose??’ ‘why don’t we try”??
Well, it didn’t take long before we got a letter back from him saying just send it to me and he’d narrate it!!
Sheldon Reynolds
What is the biggest takeaway from the story of Charlie Wilson’s War and how does it affect us today?
Award-winning filmmaker and friend of Charles Fawcett, Sheldon Reynolds (and husband of Andrea Reynolds who had been the girlfriend of Claus von Bulow’s who had been involved in the infamous scandal in Europe and I had brought to Pakistan) was brought in to edit the film. The film ‘Courage is Our Weapon’ won a number of awards and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Reagan administration, including the head of the CIA, Casper Weinberger.
Andrea Reynolds and Claus Von Bulow
Albert “Cubby” Brocolli
Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the owner and producer of the James Bond series stated that it was our film “courage is our weapon”, that was his inspiration for the James Bond movie ‘The living daylights” dealing with Afghanistan. It was the first time for a lot of people including Charlie Wilson to see and get an understanding of what was going on with Pakistan and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
It was Charlie Fawcett’s cut down and unfinished version of the original film (Courage is Our Weapon) that Tom Hanks mentioned in the film, Charlie Wilson’s War, not Courage is Our Weapon.
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Biography
George Crile took a long time to finish the book he attempted the original interviews of myself and everyone else back in the late '80s early '90s but didn't finish the book until the late '90s where it became a New York times number one bestseller and because of that Tom Hanks production company, play tone, purchased the movie rights to the film.
I am not in the film because I am not in the book. The reason I'm not in the book is because George crile called me four times to interview me and I hung up on him because he lied to me. he told me he had been a producer with 60 minutes. I had friends at 60 minutes I called them and none had ever heard of George Crile. well, turns out he had been an outside line producer.
But during this time that he was interviewing everyone the FBI was going around and asking a lot of questions and harassing people pretending to be reporters and survey takers and a lot of things that they weren't.
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