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.
The story of King George VI, his impromptu ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Director:
Tom Hooper
Stars:
Colin Firth,
Geoffrey Rush,
Helena Bonham Carter
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director:
Kathryn Bigelow
Stars:
Jeremy Renner,
Anthony Mackie,
Brian Geraghty
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Director:
Tom McCarthy
Stars:
Mark Ruffalo,
Michael Keaton,
Rachel McAdams
A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.
In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans were taken hostage. However, six managed to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA was ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devised a daring plan: create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez created the ruse and proceeded to Iran as its associate producer. However, time was running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House had grave doubts about the operation themselves.Written by
Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
While John Chambers, Tony Mendez, and Lester Siegel are trying to figure out how to make their fake movie project look plausible, Siegel recalls that he made a movie once with Rock Hudson, and from that, draws the conclusion that if you want people to believe a lie, you should have the media disseminate it for you. This seeming non sequitur is a reference to the fact that Hudson, one of the biggest Hollywood stars and sex symbols of the 1950s, was secretly gay, and his agent, Henry Wilson, actively fed misinformation about Hudson's "girlfriends" (really studio-arranged dates for publicity only) to the mainstream media. When the gossip tabloid "Confidential" threatened to expose Hudson's homosexuality, Wilson instead fed them then-scandalous information about two of the less-famous stars on his roster (Rory Calhoun and Tab Hunter) and arranged a sham marriage between his secretary and Hudson. Hudson's homosexuality was not widely known outside of Hollywood until his death in 1985. See more »
Goofs
Joe Stafford's glasses are plain glass: they do not distort what is behind them. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Sahar:
[narration]
This is the Persian Empire known today as Iran. For 2,500 years, this land was ruled by a series of kings, known as shahs. In 1950, the people of Iran elected Mohammad Mossadeqh, a secular democrat, as Prime Minister. He nationalized British and U.S. petroleum holdings, returning Iran's oil to it's people. But in 1953, the U.S. and Great Britain engineered a coup d'etat that deposed Mossadeqh and installed Reza Pahlavi as shah. The young Shah was known for opulence and ...
See more »
Crazy Credits
The movie opens with the 1970s-era Warner Bros. slash logo that eventually became the logo of Warner Music, which was designed by Saul Bass, instead of the traditional shield logo. However, the corporate copy below the logo refers to Time Warner, the current incarnation of Warner Communications since 1990, in the same typeface that was used decades ago. See more »
Alternate Versions
An extended version of the film was released on Blu-Ray in 2013 with 9 minutes worth of alternate or extended footage. Many of the new scenes explored Tony Mendez's family background. See more »
The film is well done, and exciting, though Ben Affleck made clear in interviews that the actual rescue was not quite so dramatic but was punched up for dramatic purposes. It worked for me! Affleck does a nice job of subduing his own personality in the character he portrays. It is also clear from the pictures the end that the filmmakers were careful to recreate the scenes as closely as possible from archival pictures and videos. Affleck and company did a good job of balancing history and the artistic needs of a commercial movie.
Does anybody know the name of the earlier version of this same rescue? I saw it on video cassette in 1991 but don't remember the name of it or who starred in it.
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The film is well done, and exciting, though Ben Affleck made clear in interviews that the actual rescue was not quite so dramatic but was punched up for dramatic purposes. It worked for me! Affleck does a nice job of subduing his own personality in the character he portrays. It is also clear from the pictures the end that the filmmakers were careful to recreate the scenes as closely as possible from archival pictures and videos. Affleck and company did a good job of balancing history and the artistic needs of a commercial movie.
Does anybody know the name of the earlier version of this same rescue? I saw it on video cassette in 1991 but don't remember the name of it or who starred in it.