ANALYSIS:

In 1979 during the time after the government of Iran was overthrown, the US Embassy in Iran is surrounded and six employees of the embassy escape when the embassy is stormed.   The six escaped employees find sanctuary at the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor while the world watches the hostage situation of the other employees at the US embassy.  The CIA thinks of ways to rescue the six embassy employees while the US government works on a solution to free all of the hostages.   Enter CIA exfiltration (exfil) expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) who comes up with a solution to use a location scout for a fake movie production of a sci-fi script called Argo.   They would pose the six embassy employees as members of the film production and smuggle them out using fake passports.  They set up a movie production company, get production art drawn by comic book legend Jack Kirby, get a movie poster made, and get an article featured on Argo in Variety.

 

ARGO is a tense dramatic story based on a true story about the Canadian Caper with the focus on the CIA role in the operation.   Many elements were changed for dramatic license like the six employees never stayed at the home of the Canadian ambassador and dropping some of the other things that happened during the time of the Iran hostage crisis to center on the story of the exfil operation and the six employees’ tense stay in the house of the ambassador.   The script under the very capable direction of Ben Affleck (who is a better director than actor) finds a balance between docudrama and Hollywood production.  I like the vintage Warner Bros Pictures logo from the 1970s at the beginning of the movie.   They are able to tell the story and draw people in while allowing for a few moments of humor (like using Argo as part of a swear word phrase). 

 

ARGO continues to prove Ben Affleck is a very capable director (much better than his acting which I don’t mind and yet I think he found his calling as a film director).   He has created a drama that creates a world that is based on a true story and entertaining the viewer at the same time. It makes you want to have Mendez succeed.   You feel the tension even if you know the outcome of the mission from the news reports   ARGO is largely an entertaining movie that proves how good a director Affleck is and you should go see it on DVD or Blu-ray.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Picture-In-Picture: Eyewitness Account- watch the movie with interviews with the survivors’ stories.

Audio commentary with Director Ben Affleck and writer Chris Terrio as Ben tells viewers how some events were compressed or edited down to make the story flow faster

 

RESCUED FROM TEHRAN: WE WERE THERE- interviews with President Jimmy Carter, CIA agent Tony Mendez, and the actual houseguests as they recount their real life experiences which the film is based on

ARGO: ABSOLUTE AUTHENTICITY- a featurette that shows how Ben Affleck recreated the world of 1979 Iran by filming in Turkey and good production design

ARGO: THE CIA AND HOLLYWOOD CONNECTION- Ben Affleck and Tony Mendez talk about the secrets behind the phony movie Argo that had Hollywood fooled.

ESCAPE FROM IRAN: THE HOLLYWOOD OPTION- a 46 minute documentary that tells the Canadian side of the story which ARGO glossed over.   The story told here tells a more exciting story than what made it to the screen.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  ARGO is an entertaining thriller which continues to prove how good a director Ben Affleck is, but the ESCAPE FROM IRAN documentary is worth watching after the movie to see the big parts of the story that were left out or altered in the name of Hollywood drama.

 

PS  An extended cut may be on the way in the future.  So please be aware of that before you buy it.

 

This movie review is (c)2-24-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com