This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2013/feb/22/argo-ben-affleck-reel-history
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Argo – Ben Affleck's gripping CIA thriller sends reality into a tailspin | Argo – Ben Affleck's gripping CIA thriller sends reality into a tailspin |
| (2 months later) | |
| Argo (2012) Director: Ben Affleck Entertainment grade: A– History grade: C | Argo (2012) Director: Ben Affleck Entertainment grade: A– History grade: C |
| See if this film is playing near you | |
| On 4 November 1979, Iranian revolutionaries occupied the US embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 hostages. Six diplomats escaped. Canadian officials and the CIA launched a secret joint operation to get them out. | On 4 November 1979, Iranian revolutionaries occupied the US embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 hostages. Six diplomats escaped. Canadian officials and the CIA launched a secret joint operation to get them out. |
| Politics | Politics |
| In 1953, the CIA and MI6 engineered a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically elected president of Iran, and replace him with a military-backed absolute monarchy. By 1979, opposition to the shah hardened into revolutionary fervour and democrats found themselves, fatefully, on the same side as Islamic fundamentalism. Argo presents this context imaginatively, though fleetingly and perhaps too vaguely. The sequence in which revolutionaries storm the US embassy is brilliantly realised, though. If you wait for the end credits, a series of real photos is shown alongside the movie versions so you may admire its accurate visual recreations. | In 1953, the CIA and MI6 engineered a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically elected president of Iran, and replace him with a military-backed absolute monarchy. By 1979, opposition to the shah hardened into revolutionary fervour and democrats found themselves, fatefully, on the same side as Islamic fundamentalism. Argo presents this context imaginatively, though fleetingly and perhaps too vaguely. The sequence in which revolutionaries storm the US embassy is brilliantly realised, though. If you wait for the end credits, a series of real photos is shown alongside the movie versions so you may admire its accurate visual recreations. |
| Operation | Operation |
| The six escaped Americans are taken in by Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). If you're thinking they'd be awfully conspicuous in a big group like that, you'd be right. In real life, they were split into two groups of three, one staying with Taylor and one with immigration officer John Sheardown. Back in Virginia, CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a way to get them out. With the help of his friend John Chambers (John Goodman) – a makeup artist who won an honorary Oscar in 1969 for his work on Planet of the Apes – he sets up a film company. The plan is to set up a fake production, arrange a location recce in Iran, and pass the six diplomats off as Canadian film-makers. Afterwards, they will simply walk out through Mehrabad airport. Madcap as this sounds, it's true. | The six escaped Americans are taken in by Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). If you're thinking they'd be awfully conspicuous in a big group like that, you'd be right. In real life, they were split into two groups of three, one staying with Taylor and one with immigration officer John Sheardown. Back in Virginia, CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a way to get them out. With the help of his friend John Chambers (John Goodman) – a makeup artist who won an honorary Oscar in 1969 for his work on Planet of the Apes – he sets up a film company. The plan is to set up a fake production, arrange a location recce in Iran, and pass the six diplomats off as Canadian film-makers. Afterwards, they will simply walk out through Mehrabad airport. Madcap as this sounds, it's true. |
| Plot | Plot |
| "We decided we needed a script with 'sci-fi', Middle Eastern and mythological elements," Mendez wrote in his account of the real operation. "Something about the glory of Islam would be nice, too." They secure the rights to one called Argo. In real life, Argo was based on the novel Lord of Light, a dystopian orientalist space epic by Roger Zelazny. Director Ben Affleck couldn't use any elements of Lord of Light in his Argo, because in real life he didn't have the rights. So the Argo in Argo is a fake version of a fake movie. The real fake Argo, as it were, was based on Hindu-Buddhist mythology – not quite Middle Eastern or a glorification of Islam, but the CIA seemed to think it was close enough. The fake fake Argo in this movie is a Star Wars rip-off. They've got a big blue Wookiee and everything. | "We decided we needed a script with 'sci-fi', Middle Eastern and mythological elements," Mendez wrote in his account of the real operation. "Something about the glory of Islam would be nice, too." They secure the rights to one called Argo. In real life, Argo was based on the novel Lord of Light, a dystopian orientalist space epic by Roger Zelazny. Director Ben Affleck couldn't use any elements of Lord of Light in his Argo, because in real life he didn't have the rights. So the Argo in Argo is a fake version of a fake movie. The real fake Argo, as it were, was based on Hindu-Buddhist mythology – not quite Middle Eastern or a glorification of Islam, but the CIA seemed to think it was close enough. The fake fake Argo in this movie is a Star Wars rip-off. They've got a big blue Wookiee and everything. |
| Action | Action |
| Mendez persuades the six to play along, but the exfiltration is a nail-biter. First, Iranian officials show them round a bazaar, where they must convincingly play their roles and are exposed to spying eyes. Then, at the airport, they have to pass off their dodgy paperwork and negotiate their way round the revolutionary guards. Will they get out before the spying eyes from the bazaar match up with other intelligence to identify them? It is terrifically exciting. It is also almost entirely fictional. Not least because the idea that regime officials were moments away from capturing the six at the airport credits Iranian bureaucracy with lightning efficiency. | Mendez persuades the six to play along, but the exfiltration is a nail-biter. First, Iranian officials show them round a bazaar, where they must convincingly play their roles and are exposed to spying eyes. Then, at the airport, they have to pass off their dodgy paperwork and negotiate their way round the revolutionary guards. Will they get out before the spying eyes from the bazaar match up with other intelligence to identify them? It is terrifically exciting. It is also almost entirely fictional. Not least because the idea that regime officials were moments away from capturing the six at the airport credits Iranian bureaucracy with lightning efficiency. |
| More action | More action |
| The real operation went "as smooth as silk", according to Mendez, aside from a brief holdup over a mechanical problem with the plane. The choppy version in Argo certainly makes for a more exciting film. For a historian, though, the last third of the runtime feels almost like the end of Adaptation, when the high-velocity, high-concept style of the movie-within-the-movie seems to take over the movie you're watching, and the barriers between fact and fiction and fantasy break down, and you might just need to sit down with a nice cup of tea until reality stops spinning. | The real operation went "as smooth as silk", according to Mendez, aside from a brief holdup over a mechanical problem with the plane. The choppy version in Argo certainly makes for a more exciting film. For a historian, though, the last third of the runtime feels almost like the end of Adaptation, when the high-velocity, high-concept style of the movie-within-the-movie seems to take over the movie you're watching, and the barriers between fact and fiction and fantasy break down, and you might just need to sit down with a nice cup of tea until reality stops spinning. |
| Verdict | Verdict |
| A smart, gripping and witty historical action thriller – though there are so many interwoven layers of reality and fiction here that it wouldn't be surprising if the blue Wookiee whipped off his furry head to reveal he was really the Ayatollah. | A smart, gripping and witty historical action thriller – though there are so many interwoven layers of reality and fiction here that it wouldn't be surprising if the blue Wookiee whipped off his furry head to reveal he was really the Ayatollah. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |