tamping the fervor

Julia Roberts as Joanne Herring majestically continues her introduction of the President of Pakistan:


"In the time that he's been President, the fortunes of Pakistan have changed radically.  I've asked you all here today...


CUT TO:  Joanne hurrying into a room, finding Congressman Wilson there, alone.


Joanne -- "You disappeared."


Charlie Wilson -- Well, they weren't selling alcohol in there.


Joanne -- It's a traditional Pakistani gathering.


-- You think they might be a lot happier over there, if they could just get women and booze in the same room at the same time?


-- I think they'd be a whole lot happier over there if the Communists got out!





Charlie (razzing her, in a low-key way)-- "Zia did not kill Bhutto."  That's not something you usually hear in introductory remarks.


Joanne (passionately) -- He didn't, Charlie.  Bhutto had a trial and was found guilty.


(As he answers, Charlie Wilson is not rolling his eyes skyward, but you sense that inside, he is.)


Charlie -- Shocking verdict.


Joanne (on a note of changing-the-subject) -- What did you need to talk to me about?


-- Joanne darling, dial down the religion.


-- What?


-- It could alienate people whose support we need.


Joanne -- It's luncheons like this that are raising the money we need!


Charlie -- This thing is not gonna get done by ballrooms full of people in the Houstonian Hotel.  It's gonna get done by the CIA, Israel, Egypt, and Pakistan, and it's gonna get done quietly.  Now you start making people think we're trying to convert everybody to Christianity...


(While Congressman Wilson's approach is cool, gentle, easy, Joanne is energetic, passionate.)


Joanne -- I was saved by Jesus Christ, Charlie, and I am not ashamed of it.  My fervor is not about religion, it's about freedom of religion, which we have, they want, and the Communists are slaughtering them for!


Charlie -- And I get it.  Just . . . tamp down the fervor.
-- Well, I can't modulate God's will, sweetie.
-- You can try.  Now, I've got to get back to D.C.  They've set up a briefing for me at Langley.
(They're exiting the room, together.)
-- On what?
-- On gettin' the guns.


INT.  LANGLEY - DAY.


Mike Vickers speaks to a group.  You assume they're CIA people, various government experts.  Congressman Charlie Wilson is there.


Vickers -- "Afghanistan's barely a country.





There's no phones or roads outside the cities.  It's likely that a villager would live his life without having contact with another village just three miles down the road, unless he was going to war against them."


----------------------
{Charlie Wilson's War.  2007 film.}


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