As far as moving going goes, I think this is going to be a busy week for me. It's Friday and my first thought of the day was which movie I was going to go see first. I originally wanted to see Seven Psychopaths first because of Christopher Walken. Instead I went to see Argo. I told my Dad about my movie plans and he turned his nose up at Seven Psychopaths. That's when I mentioned Argo and he was more receptive to that.
And you know what? Argo is a brilliantly done movie.
Ben Affleck has done a lot to rebuild his credibility as a director and an actor. He's not doing movies like Daredevil or Gigli anymore. His last two movies he starred in and directed were of course this one and also another movie I absolutely loved; The Town. He knows what he's doing.
For those not familiar with the story; Iran has taken Americans hostage in 1980. During the chaos of Iranian thugs taking the embassy, six managed to escape and took refuge in the Canadian embassy. Affleck plays a CIA operative named Antonio Mendez and it's his job to rescue those six people. His idea on how to do it was to pretend to make a movie called Argo and possibly have it filmed on location in Iran. Then he just gathers the six people posing as production people (director, set designer, etc) and just calmly board a flight out.
It sounds insane. It sounds impossible. And oh by the way it's a true story. This actually happened.
And that leads me in to what I loved the most about this movie. The production design. This in every way felt like it was back in 1980. Everything felt so genuine. Other than the dramatic climax, nothing about this movie felt contrived. It was put together beautifully. I normally don't recommend staying through the credits, but just before the credits roll, they show pictures of the fake Canadian passports, photos they used to create really dramatic scenes in the movie, they even showed the cast along side pictures of the actual people who were involved. It's something that cements the realism of the movie despite how incredible it was. And to top it off they finish with a recording of an interview with President Carter!
Alan Arkin was brilliant. I know the title of my review is far from subtle but if you see the movie, you'd understand. That is one of the best lines of the movie.
Talking about the historical facts of this movie is a little more dicey. In the movie the role of the Canadian Government is a bit more downplayed and more emphasis is on the risks the people in the CIA took. Canada deserves so much respect for their role in this. Especially Ken Taylor.
The movie calls the Iranian Hostage Crisis as an enduring model of international co-operation between governments. I couldn't agree more. American citizens were held prisoner for 444 days. Interrogation, torture, mock executions, and the constant fear that at any moment they could be killed.
If I can sum up why it happened: America and England supported the Shah (king) of Iran. The Shah was brutal to his people and many militants blamed the USA because the USA overthrew the Iranian government to put the Shah in power. So the Iranians rebelled and stormed the US embassy.
This was such a huge issue in America at the time that it dominated the news cycle and the presidential debates. President Carter lost in no small part to soon to be President Reagan because of the embarrassment and his preceived inaction to end it. In the end it did end peacefully. None of the hostages died and all were released the day after President Carter left office. It's believed the Iranians chose the date because they wanted to symbolically punish President Carter for supporting the Shah of Iran.
There were some liberties taken with the historical facts done for dramatic effect but honestly it's a great movie and well worth seeing. Especially stay for the end credits and see the photos and listen to President Carter.
No comments:
Post a Comment