Aaron Sorkin – West Wing’s Original Screenwriter

[Pat]

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For those of us who like to be entertained and receive our information (subject to verification) in the form of sugar-coated nuggets in the monologues of late-night comics, or in movies or WE/Broadway plays, there is a very interesting snippet in “Charlie Wilson’s War” still playing in first-run movie theaters and focusing on the true-story heroics of a single Congressman from Texas who virtually single-handedly (at least as far as the US Gov was concerned) expelled the Russians from Afghanistan in the 1980’s by putting together a typical behind-the-scenes coalition of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Israel and Egypt supplied Soviet weapons in order to avoid “leaving American fingerprints” that might otherwise turn the Cold War into a hot one, Saudi Arabia was willing to co-finance the operation if America took the lead, and Pakistan provided the operational support.

The snippet, containing screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's implied opinion that Washington is controlled by campaign contributions =

Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson, protesting) – “I’m elected by Jews.”

Julia Roberts – “How many Jews do you have in your district?”

Tom Hanks – “Seven – BUT POLITICANS AREN’T ELECTED BY VOTERS, THEY’RE ELECTED BY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS! Mine are located in New York, Florida and Hollywood!”

*****

By way of background, Aaron Sorkin is our most noted playwright/screenwriter when it comes to political dialogue.

Most remembered as the screenwriter for NBC’s “The West Wing” for its first four seasons, he was also well known (among other things) as the author of “A Few Good Men” on Broadway and the screenwriter who adapted it for Hollywood where it starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore – to the delight of movie fans who love to play the parlor game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” who played the military prosecutor. (For the uninitiated, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is based on the proposition that there is no noteworthy Hollywood actor/actress who has not appeared in at least one movie with Kevin Bacon in a supporting role, so one participant provides two Hollywood names and the other contestants have to name at least one movie in which each appeared with KB.)