Goofs for
Charlie Wilson's War (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: In the montage where the Mujahideen shoot down Russian planes and helicopters, four of the aircraft (an A-6 Intruder, an F-4 Phantom, a UH-1 Huey helicopter, and an F-16) are American-made, and would never have been used by the Soviet military.
  
  
• Continuity: After Gust removes the bug from the bottle of scotch, the position of the label sealing the bottle changes between shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In some scenes showing Hinds on the ground, various Mi-35s are shown. They are very modern derivatives of the infamous Mi-24 Hind-D, with distinctive engine casings.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: During the first scene with two Russian helicopters en route to attack, their rocket pods are empty; you can see daylight through them.
  
  
• Continuity: When Charlie is in his office meeting with Gust, the epaulet on his right shoulder is unbuttoned during several shots. Later it is buttoned.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In a scene set in early 1980, Crystal Lee mentions the TV show "Falcon Crest" (1981), which premiered in 1981.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The presentation in the airplane hangar before the Clandestine Service has a series of flags from the intelligence community in the background. One of the flags bears the distinctive seal of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which was reorganized on November 23, 2003. Before that, it was the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) with a completely different seal.
  
  
• Continuity: In one of the opening scenes where Charlie is receiving the award, Joanne Herring is shown clapping in close up, wearing black gloves. In the subsequent wide shots showing the entire audience, she is gloveless.
  
  
• Continuity: In Gust's first scene, he fights with his boss about who owes whom an apology. The window that Gust had previously broken has just been replaced. As the fight continues and he's ordered out of the office, Gust breaks the window again, leaving shards of glass in the frame. In subsequent shots, most of the shards are gone.
  
  
• Factual errors: Following a montage depicting events of 1987-1988 in Afghanistan, Charlie celebrates his reelection, and Gust tells him that Doc Long is going to be defeated. Long was defeated in 1984.
  
  
• Continuity: When Charlie and Joanne meet for the first time in the film, they tilt their heads to the right as they kiss. In the subsequent shot when they break the kiss, their heads are tilted to the left.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In line in the Langley cafeteria, the cashier pulls a bill out of the same slot where she placed the bill she received from Gust. She also gives him coins, leaving Gust with more money than he had when he entered the line.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bill in the Langley cafeteria, with a large faced president, was not available in the 1980s.
  
  
• Continuity: When the strippers are asking Charlie what he does for a living while they're in the hot tub, Kelly's position keeps changing back and forth from leaning against the side to sitting up straight, depending on which camera is being used.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Texas flag in Charlie Wilson's office is upside down; the white field should be at the top.
  
  
• Continuity: When Charlie is in Las Vegas, the date on the screen is April 6, 1980. The next day, back in Washington, Larry Liddle visits Charlie to complain about a problem with a crèche in front of a firehouse in Nacogdoches, TX, stating that it's Christmas time.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Gust Avrakotos says "you can park a battle carrier group behind the right hand." He should have said "you can park a carrier battle group behind the right hand."
  
  
• Anachronisms: Towards the beginning of the movie, Charlie is at a Vegas Club in April 1980. The next day, he is back in Washington to meet with his constituent about a Christmas display. Later that evening, Charlie is with a young lady who sings along with "Angel of the Morning." However, the cover version by Juice Newton was released in 1981.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Gust Avrakotos and Charlie Wilson talk in Charlie's office after Gust removes the bug from the scotch bottle, Gust sits down next to a table that has a picture of a B-1B Lancer bomber with a gray paint scheme. B-1Bs were introduced in 1985. Until the mid-1990s, they were painted in a green, dark green, and grey "European I" or "lizard" paint scheme.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Larry Liddle complains about a problem with a crèche in Nacogdoches, in east Texas. Charlie Wilson represents the 2nd Congressional district, in southeast Texas near Houston. However, that was the result of redistricting in 2003. In the 1980s, the second district included Lufkin and Nacogdoches.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The modern digital thermostat by the door in Joanne's bedroom was not available in 1980.
  
  
• Continuity: When Charlie is watching TV in the bath tub, a stripper puts cocaine down on the edge of the bathtub, and her hands are empty. In the next shot, she is shooting cocaine up her nose.
  
  
• Factual errors: While Larry Liddle complains to Charlie about a problem with a crèche in front of a firehouse in Nacogdoches, TX, they both keep referring to Nacogdoches Township. Texas does not have townships.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Charlie returns to Washington to cast his vote, he enters the House floor from an adjoining room. Several times, he enters that same side room from the hall outside his office, which would be impossible. The interior architecture of Charlie's office indicates that his office is in the Rayburn House Office Building, across the street from the Capitol building.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Charlie and his aide come back from Pakistan the first time, a shot of the outside of their 747 shows winglets. They first appeared on the 747-400, which was introduced in 1985.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the bathtub scene at the beginning of the movie, as Charlie Wilson and all his friends move around in the tub, the water in the tub is obviously computer generated. When the water recedes, their skin is dry.
  
  
• Continuity: FLIPPED SHOT: During the Red Square military parade, the army vehicles and the soldiers move southwards, with the Kremlin wall on the right. Suddenly, the parade changes direction, and the Kremlin wall is on the left.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During some helicopter attack scenes, bodies that were shot at instantly disappear, as if they were deleted from the screen.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): As Charlie reads the Congressional newswire about Kabul, Bonnie Bach says Kabul is in "Uzbekistan." In 1980, it was Uzbek SSR. Uzbekistan did not exist until the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.
  
  
• Continuity: During the talk with Larry Liddle when Charlie's assistant hides his mug of whiskey in a drawer, she at first uses her left hand to lift the mug, but in the next shot she's holding the mug in her right hand placing it in the drawer. Her holding it in her right hand allows for her cleavage to show.
  
  

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