"Argo" (2012 release; 120 min.) bring the story, based on true events but fictionalized for Hollywood purposes, of how CIA operative Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) goes to Iran to help rescue 6 Americans who are holed up in the Canadian Ambassador's residence ever since Iranian fanatics violently took over the US Embassy compound. In order to get the 6 Americans out of Iran, Mendez proposes that they pose as Canadian film makers, who are in Iran scouting for appropriate locations to film Argo, a Star Wars-like adventure. When the various options and alternatives (foreign teachers? agriculture specialists? no, film makers!) are presented to US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, he looks incredulous, but when reassured about the various options available that "they are all bad ideas. but this is the BEST bad idea we have", Vance blesses the mission. In order to lend credibility to the idea that he is involved with this fake movie, Mendez and his Hollywood connections set up a fake film company, with a fake film production office, and a fake script, etc. Once in Iran, Mendez gets in contact with the Group of 6, and they are slowly but surely preparing to try and escape out of Tehran.Several comments: first and foremost, this is a terrific, tense and rousing historical drama, the likes of which we don't get to see often enough anymore these days. In fact, the whole movie experience feels like the movie was made in the late 70s (check out the classic Warner Bros. logo that opens the movie). It is equally clear that a number of events were fictionalized in order to advance the drama in the movie (just to name one: the chase to the plane at the end is a complete fabrication but makes for tense viewing). Other missed facts are harder to understand (for example: at the beginning of the movie, the narrator states that the Shah was "installed by US and British forces in 1953" when in reality he had ruled since 1941 as successor to his dad).
This movie is a tour de force for Ben Affleck, who stars, produces and directs. The days of the "Bennifer" ridicule are long gone! "Argo" is his third movie as a director (after 2007's "Gone Baby Gone" and 2010's "The Town"), and it seems that Affleck is either incredibly lucky, or simply getting better and better with each movie. I'll bet on the latter. There are several other choice performances in "Argo", including Alan Arkin and John Goodman as the Hollywood connections providing the fake film production house, but also Bryan Cranston as Tony's CIA superior. In all, this is truly Hollywood at its very best: a smart, tense, engaging drama/thriller, proving once again that you don't need to have the world blown up in smithereens every 5 minutes to engage an appreciative audience. "Argo" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
In Argo he manages to combine nail-biting suspense created with a minimum of violence or standard movie
action, a sharp, dark sense of humor about the weirdness of both espionage and Hollywood, and makes a film
about getting American hostages released from Iran without giving in to jingoism.
Affleck even takes the time at the beginning of the film to put the Iranian revolution into a larger context of prior American
involvement and manipulation in Iran's politics, thus making the Iranians' hostage taking horribly wrong, but also somewhat
human and understandable.
The story itself is a doozey, and definitely fits into the `you'd never believe it if it weren't true' mold. Using a fake movie as a
cover-up for a longshot rescue operation sounds like a bad episode of `Mission Impossible' (or even `Get Smart'). But here
it is, a part of history.
I have only two small complaints about the film. First, other than Alan Arkin's and John Goodman's deliciously funny performances
as the Hollywood end of the deal, not many of the other characters are given as much texture as they might, especially considering
how strong the cast is. Perhaps the fear was slowing down the film with character details, but I would have gladly watched a few
minutes more to know these people better on a human level.
More problematically there are a number of key moments where the suspense is trumped up needlessly by throwing in some very
"Hollywood" conceits (coincidences, physical impossibilities, the real story of the climax being abandoned in favor of more overt
dramatics, etc) in a film that didn't need them, a film where the whole point is how real world spy operations are miles from what
we usually see in films.
Neither of these flaws seriously damage a very, very good film, but I couldn't help some minor disappointment when I felt the film go for
the `movie moment' over truth. But this is still a highly entertaining and intelligent thriller, and that's to be applauded.
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ARGO is a well-paced and well-acted movie that takes us back to a seminal moment in modern U.S. history, the 1979-1980 Iranian hostage crisis that ushered in the Reagan era. The film focuses on a little-known footnote, the so-called "Canadian Caper," in which six American diplomats bluffed their way out of Iran by posing as a Hollywood production crew scouting a location for a sci-fi film.The film stars Tony Mendez, a CIA artist and technician (played by director Ben Affleck) who thought up the ruse. He enlists Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman), who won an Oscar for Planet of the Apes and also designed Spock's ears in Star Trek and had helped Mendez upgrade CIA disguises. Aided by a Hollywood producer (Alan Arkin), they mount an elaborate back story, complete with a script, storyboards, posters, and ads in Variety magazine for the bogus movie (Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light).
Although the larger landscape of the Iranian revolution is accurately presented, history buffs may be disappointed that the details of the operation itself are distorted almost beyond recognition. Affleck's character looms larger than life, while the American diplomats and their Canadian hosts are poorly developed cardboard foils for his heroics. This slant is not so surprising, given that the film is based on Mendez's 2002 memoir, The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA.
But it has earned the film the ire of Canadians, who say it trivializes their pivotal role in the rescue. Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), who harbored the fugitives and was instrumental in their rescue, is portrayed as a passive innkeeper taking orders from the CIA. In media interviews, he has called the film "total fiction" and "absolute nonsense."
Affleck has responded to this criticism by noting that, like many Hollywood productions, the movie purports to to be "BASED on a true story," rather than BEING a true story. "We're allowed to take some dramatic license," he reportedly said. "There's a spirit of truth."
The distortions do not end there. A second CIA agent who accompanied Mendez into Iran is absent altogether, as are all mention of a series of potentially fatal blunders by Mendez and the CIA. For example, the CIA map showed the incorrect location for the Canadian Embassy where the agents were supposed to meet their contacts. And on the morning of the escape, Mendez actually overslept, according to accounts of the rescue released after the CIA declassified it in 1997.
The actual exit was also far less dramatic than portrayed in Argo. As described by Mendez in a lengthy narrative on the CIA's official website, the departure went as "smooth as silk"; "The Iranian official at the checkpoint could not have cared less" about the group's paperwork as he stamped the fake passports and exit visas that allowed them to escape onto a waiting Swissair flight (that was delayed due to a minor mechanical problem, not depicted in the film).
Still, While Mendez is overly glamorized in Argo, the CIA is not. The agency is portrayed as willing to sacrifice the diplomats in order to avoid potential international embarrassment.
Shane Bauer, one of three American hikers taken hostage by Iran in 2009, tweeted another flaw, regarding its depiction of the Iranian people: Every Iranian except the maid and the Shah loyalists in the embassy lobby are depicted as "thugs or part of an angry mob."
Yet despite or perhaps because of all of its distortions, omissions and biases, Argo still works. It is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is both entertaining and historically relevant. I recommend it.
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I can't understand why I feel so differently from everyone about this movie. All I heard were good things, so despite a very average trailer I rented Argo. It was indeed as average, as cliche, as contrived as I expected. We all know the ending, but I was assured that it would still be suspenseful and gripping. It was not. I'm sure all the things that happened on the tarmac are made up. I'm sure the ringing and ringing and ringing telephone at production offices was made up. All these amateur devices to pep up the story and play to American audiences, the strange and incomplete story about Affleck and his family (it seemed like they wanted to go somewhere with it and then abandoned it), the exaggerated hair and make-up it was all so . . . did I already say amateurish? I cannot believe this country or the Hollywood community might actually take this film and bestow upon it all accolades that I strongly feel should go to Lincoln.Want Argo (Blu-ray + UltraViolet Digital Copy) (2013) Discount?
This film is based on a very compelling true story, yet the film itself only has moments of real suspense. For most of the movie, Ben Affleck looks totally deadpan. I assume he is trying to look like a CIA agent who does not want to blow his cover, but his demeanor is basically the same in every single scene. There were better performances by his collaborators back home. While I enjoyed learning the inside story about these 6 people, for the suspense and drama that took place surrounding the real story, this film could have done a better job of conveying that. It left me kind of lukewarm. Considering the big haul this film made in terms of awards, I think it was overrated. When I really enjoy a movie, I can have fun watching it several times. I'll only be seeing this one just the once.Save 20% Off
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