Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. ho... Read allActing under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
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But the real nail biter is their exit from Iran. As in other movies of this ilk, the chase heats up with the Iranians on the heels of the Americans. Affleck throws into this chase a huge boulder of an obstacle when President Carter pulls the plug on the film crew ex-filtration & decides to go with Delta soldiers instead. If you want to know what happens, I advise you to see the movie or read the news accounts.
This just goes to show you that not all CIA covert actions are led by armed fighters like Jason Bourne and launched by the Treadstone department. Affleck's character doesn't even carry a gun--he carries a script instead.
The film opens with an American embassy in Iran being stormed and the majority of people taken hostage, except a small group who flee to the home of the Canadian Ambassador and are hidden. The story is then about the extradition of this small group, before the Iranians work out that they are missing and hunt them down; with options limited, the plan is to send an agent into Iran posing as someone scouting for locations for a movie – and then leave the country with the small group acting as his colleagues and peers. This involves doing more than saying it out loud as it has to pass muster with the Iranians – so the CIA works with a Hollywood writer and a producer to greenlight a film, sell it to the press and take their small production into Iran. In telling the story the film pretty much plays it straight and allows the scenario to be whatever it is – so when it is a press junket then it is amusingly absurd but while it is in an Iranian airport it is really tense and the stakes are apparent. This approach works pretty well because it lets the film have these extremes alongside one another without one undercutting the other. The downside is that it does occasionally mean that the telling feels quite "ordinary" as it lacks an individual voice to the delivery – not boring by any means, but just surprisingly straight in the telling.
This can be seen in the cast because mostly there are not really characters here, since the film focuses on events and doesn't leave a lot of time for the people (understandably). Affleck doesn't really work in the lead and I'm not sure why he cast him; he is OK but his presence is not all it needed to be in such a straight film. The various hostages in Iran don't really make an impression beyond them being just that, but there is color provided by solid turns from Goodman, Cranston, Arkin and a few others. As director Affleck does a good job to make the mix of content work so well, but the real credit to the production is how of the period it feels – there is nothing that really seems out of place, from office to street it feels like it was filmed back in the late 70s.
Argo is an effective and engaging story that works partly because the telling is straight enough to let the events be however they are (absurd, tense, whatever). However this straight bat does also limit the film by making it feel a little ordinary in the delivery, without much flair or individual style to the telling, even if the attention to period is really well done.
Based on writings of CIA operative Tony Mendez who engineered the escape of six American diplomats who were lucky enough to get out of Iran during the Ayatollah Khomeini craziness during the Iran hostage crisis, Affleck who sports a heavy beard that makes him totally unrecognizable as Affleck, but no doubt Mendez had such a growth. Only the voice lets you know from time to time that it is Affleck.
Our protagonist has a history of pulling off good intelligence coups and he's given an assignment by his superiors. When they learn that the American diplomats are hiding at the Canadian ambassador's home he has to devise a scheme to get them out. He's one of several people put on this problem. His solution is to appeal to the Iranian's sense of celebrity. Affleck creates the cover story of a movie being shot in Iran, a science fiction spectacular like Star Wars and these folks were there scouting locations in the desert. Hollywood contacts John Goodman and Alan Arkin were most helpful, their sense of Hollywood hyperbole comes in handy. In fact both make several jokes about the movie capital. Arkin got a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Of course we know what happened. I remember the news breaking that the Canadians had gotten these diplomats out who should have been hostages along with the others. The Iranians huffed and puffed and vowed divine retribution on Canada for aiding the Great Satan. It all came to naught however.
Argo which is the title of the pretend science fiction epic so far represents the summit of Ben Affleck's career. Why he did not get nominated for Best Actor and Director is quite beyond me if the Academy thought the film that good. Now that the story is declassified we now see that the CIA can occasionally get it right.
**** (out of 4)
Excellent thriller based around the secret CIA mission to try and rescue six Americans hiding out in Iran shortly after the hostage crisis broke out. CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) decides to hatch a plot to make a fake movie and get the six out. It's only early November as I write this but I'm going to make a bold prediction that ARGO hears its name called out quite a few times come Oscar night. Director Affleck has once again created an incredibly well-made, incredibly tense and downright entertaining thriller that works on all levels and really comes across as something special. We've seen hostage movies before and we've seen political movies before but there's never been anything quite like ARGO. Thank God it's based on a true story or else who would believe this story? The secret mission of the CIA is just so incredible that it has to be true and using the Hollywood backdrop just makes for some pretty fun scenes and especially when you know a couple of the names like Oscar-winner John Chambers. The actual look of the film is quite striking as you certainly feel as if you're in the middle of the 1979-80 time period. Affleck has a great eye for the style of the picture and the cross between the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and some of 8 and 16mm footage. The performances are also another major plus with Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston all doing terrific work. Each and every actor no matter how small or major their part really comes across terrific and this helps brings so much credit to the story. I'm certainly not going to ruin the final thirty-minutes but they'll have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. After GONE BABY GONE and THE TOWN, Affleck had certainly put his name on the map for young directors and now ARGO just takes that to a new level. This here is certainly one of the best movies of the year and one of the smartest and most intelligent thrillers in a very long time.
Oscars Best Picture Winners, Ranked
Oscars Best Picture Winners, Ranked
Did you know
- TriviaIn an interview with Piers Morgan, former President Jimmy Carter said that he believes the film was a "great drama", and it deserved to win an Oscar for best film. However, Carter noted that although "ninety percent of the contributions to the ideas, and the consummation of the plan was Canadian", the film "gives almost full credit to the American C.I.A. With that exception, the movie's very good," Carter said, but "the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador, who orchestrated the entire process."
- GoofsIt is stated that the British and New Zealand embassies refused to help staff from the American embassy. This was not true. Both the British and the New Zealand embassies sheltered the Americans, then helped to pass them on to the Canadians. Britain's Arthur Wyatt was later awarded the Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George for the risks that he took.
- Quotes
LA Times Reporter: What does the title refer to?
Lester Siegel: The Argo. You know, it's the thing.
LA Times Reporter: Like Jason and the Golden Fleece, or what?
Lester Siegel: No, no. It's the ship. It's the spaceship. It goes everywhere. It goes all throughout space.
LA Times Reporter: So, it's Argonaut.
Lester Siegel: No.
LA Times Reporter: What does Argo mean?
Lester Siegel: I don't know.
LA Times Reporter: You don't know?
Lester Siegel: It means "Argo fuck yourself."
- Crazy creditsPast the photos of cast members and the real people they play, there's audio from an interview with then-President Jimmy Carter talking about the crisis.
- Alternate versionsAfter it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the postscript at the end credits was changed because it was felt that it slighted Canada's involvement in the rescue of the American hostages.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.11 (2012)
- SoundtracksUpside Down
from In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Written by Mark Isham
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./Summit Entertainment, LLC
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
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- Also known as
- Escape from Tehran
- Filming locations
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Box office
- Budget
- $44,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $136,025,503
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $19,458,109
- Oct 14, 2012
- Gross worldwide
- $232,325,503
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1