Argo
(2012)
Drama | Thriller
120 min.
Rated: R Some violence, dead bodies, pervasive profanity especially the "F" word and its variations. What parents should know.
Grade: B+
Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Chris Terrio (screenplay), Joshuah Bearman (article)
Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman | See full cast and crew
During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Islamic militants take 52 Americans hostage when they invade and seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Six of the embassy workers flee during the invasion and are hidden by the Canadian ambassador in his home. The CIA
and its specialist, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), put together a very
risky plan of rescue before they revolutionaries can discover them and
extract them from Iran. Each of the six Americans are given cover
identities as location scouts
for a Canadian film production titled Argo. Tony has only 72 hours to
turn them into convincing filmmakers so they can escape Tehran.
Argo is arguably Ben Affleck's best work to date. Starring and directing this film that is based on events nicknamed the Canadian Caper that took place during the Iran hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a mob of Islamist students and militants overran and occupied the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian/Islamic Revolution. The Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown and the Peacock Throne (symbolizing the the Persian/Iranian Dynasty) officially came to an end when Iran voted, by national referendum, to become an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979. The end result being the trading one old despot for one new despot, Supreme Leader, Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
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Shah-an-Shah [King of Kings] of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, Prince Reza and Farah
(Incidentally, today October 14th is Farah's birthday)
Wearing the royal crowns, jewels and embroidered robes at the 1967 coronation in Tehran, Iran.
Photographer: Dmitri Kessel
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To his credit the Shah attempted to increase nationalist pride in the Iranian past by looking
back to the Achaemenid and Sassanid Persian Empires, going back to a pre-Muslim Iran. The Shah tried to restore the Iranian people's pride in glorifying Iran's historic legacy as a great world empire and civilization, claiming a royal dynasty stretching back 2500 years, mitigating its recent Muslim history in favor of a more secular
pan-Persian past. To his discredit his SAVAK (The Persian acronym for the State Security and Intelligence Organization formed by Shah of Iran in 1967, was originally intended to root out communist activity, but eventually expanded to monitoring all forms of internal dissent and external opposition and to censorship of the press) were ruthless purveyors of torture, execution and murder. Under Khomeini in a pot/kettle scenario the savagery continued, basically all that changed were the names and the faces and the targeted victims.
Considering the current events in the world, Argo is a very revealing and educational film. I was a young actor in NYC when the events of the 'Iran hostage crisis' occurred. I remember well the events, watching them unfold in the papers and on television. The naive foreign policy of the Carter administration echos in the ineptitude of the Obama administration with disastrous ramifications.
Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on the 2007 Wired article "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran" by Joshuah Bearman. Mr. Affleck's film is very well crafted. Great detail was paid to the nostalgic 70s feel of the sets, hair styles and costumes. The acting is top tier. It seems a bit slow in the beginning but when it gets to going the suspense and tension is impressive especially considering that we know how it all ends.
I would have given Argo a better grade but for a few flaws.
One - Mr. Affleck and company took artistic liberties with the actual events in order to heighten the excitement and tension. Minor infraction but an annoyance.
Two - Mr. Affleck and company minimized the contributions of Ambassador Kenneth D. Taylor and the Canadian government, in order to bolster the role of Tony Mendez a.k.a. Ben Affleck. Wikipedia reports that:
"...criticism arose that the film unfairly minimized the participation of
the Canadian government, particularly that of Ambassador Taylor, in the
extraction operation. This included the addition to the film of several
fictional events for dramatic reasons, as well as a postscript text
indicating that the CIA let Taylor take the credit for political
purposes, implying that he did not deserve the accolades he received. Affleck noted, "Because we say it's based on a true story, rather than
this is a true story, we're allowed to take some dramatic license.
There's a spirit of truth."
However, Affleck did respond by changing the postscript text to read,
"The involvement of the CIA complemented efforts of the Canadian embassy
to free the six held in Tehran. To this day the story stands as an
enduring model of international co-operation between governments."
A bit more egregious, taking credit for the accomplishments of someone else.
Three - This is simply stupid and onerous a very glaring and offensive way, the pernicious use of profanity particularly the 'F' type. I down graded the film for this specifically. The use of profuse swearing added nothing to the story, was distracting and restricts the audience from younger viewers that could learn some important history lessons from the film. As the old adage goes, if we fail to learn from the past we will be condemned to repeat it.
Following are five clips from Argo.
The film ends with former President Jimmy Carter talking about the Crisis and the Canadian Caper. As the credits roll they the film incorporates screenshots from the film in contrast to images of the actual
events and people involved in the crisis and the 'Argo' escape.
Cast
Tony Mendez Jack O'Donnell
John Chambers Lester Siegel
Ambassador
Ken Taylor
Neither am I a baseball or a cricket fan but this looked like an interesting story to me. There are obvious comparisons to the 1969 Tom Cruise film 'Jerry Maguire', which I must confess, I could never sit through although I started to several times. Perhaps after Million Dollar Arm I might try again. I really liked this film. I enjoyed seeing the stunning India locations. Then there were the intriguing depictions of the bleak surroundings the dearth of opportunities that were the future for the Million Dollar Arm contestants. A stunning reminder of why their life changing dreams of winning was so important. This is the true story of those dreams coming to life. This is somewhat more interesting to me than a fictional Jerry Maguire. 
