The Iranian hostage crisis escape thriller “Argo” (**** OUT
OF ****) gives new meaning to the adage that truth is stranger than
fiction. Ostensibly, this imaginative Warner
Brothers release takes us back to the year 1979 when America as a superpower found
itself cornered by a small but fanatical nation. Basically, Iran was exacting payback for our
imperialist urges in the 1950s when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
persuaded President Dwight Eisenhower to help stage a coup and overthrow the
civilian government. During the ill-fated
presidency of Jimmy Carter, outraged Islamic militants stormed the U.S. Embassy
in Tehran in November after their cancer-stricken sovereign, Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, who had been installed as monarch by America, fled the country for
sanctuary in America. This unfortunate
episode with Iran is not one of America’s star-spangled moments, any more than
the U.S.S. Pueblo debacle in North Korea.
The radical strongman—the Ayatollah Khomeini—replaced the tyrannical Shah,
and Khomeini’s minions violated the sanctity of our foreign embassy and
abducted 52 hostages at gunpoint. These
brave Americans suffered in captivity for 444 days before the U.S. managed to
negotiate their release. Television news
turned this unforgettable event into a nightmare that polarized Americans and
torpedoed Carter’s bid for a second term.
Now, some 33 years later, actor/director Ben Affleck and fledgling scenarist
Chris Terrio have appropriated this historic subject matter for an audacious as
well as inspirational espionage caper. “Argo”
should rank in the top ten of anybody’s list of the best films of 2012. Despite its R-rating for profanity, “Argo”
qualifies as the kind of true-life adventure that should please not only
armchair historians but also make us all feel a little prouder of our red,
white, and blue.
As the fury of a crowd besieging the U.S. Embassy in Tehran mounts, a small number of diplomats—six of them—debate their options and quietly
slip out a back door that the radicals aren’t watching. They find sanctuary at the residence of the
Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber 0f “The Town”), and try to sit
out the situation. During the last few
moments when Americans controlled the embassy, everybody struggled to shred top
secret documents. The Embassy personnel
managed to turn enough paperwork into fodder so the six workers weren't
missed immediately by the invading Iranians.
Nevertheless, with each day, the predicament of these diplomats grows even
more dramatic. They fear that when the
Iranians discover them that they will die horrible deaths. The Central Intelligence Agency shares
similar sentiments, and it hatches several harebrained schemes to save the six. CIA executive Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston
of TV’s “Breaking Bad”) invites one of best experts,Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck
of “Good Will Hunting”), to sit in on the conference. Government officials present a number of
scenarios for rescuing the hostages. For
example, they plan to smuggle bicycles to them and await them at the
border. Mendez takes a dim view of this
option. Instead, he suggests they
provide training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade. Nobody appreciates his sense of humor, and Mendez
dreams up a scheme that seems even more insane. Mendez proposes to masquerade as a Canadian
film producer, fly into Tehran, and waltz the six out under the noses of the Iranians
as a team of filmmakers sent to scout locations for a science fiction
movie! Eventually, despite desperate
misgivings, the CIA green lights the Mendez plan, and our hero goes into high
gear to make it all happen. He enlists
the help of an Oscar-winning Hollywood make-up artist, John Chambers (John
Goodman of “Red State”), and a shrewd movie producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin
of “Inspector Clouseau”) who doesn't miss a trick. In real life,
Chambers won an Oscar in 1969 for the original “Planet of the Apes.” They establish a production office and option an
obscure science fiction screenplay for which Siegel has nothing but
contempt. Revealing anything more about
the elaborate plot would spoil many surprises as well as the nail-biting
tension that Affleck orchestrates.
The worst thing you can say about “Argo” is that it unfolds with methodical attention to detail. Affleck and
Terrio rely on history, intelligence, and wit to depict this suspenseful
thriller. They do an excellent job of
providing all the necessary history of Iran. Leaving the theater as the
end credits roll will only serve to deprive you of some other choice surprises. You get to compare the actor or actress with the real person they impersonated. Affleck visited former President Carter, and
Carter remembers the moment when he met Mendez.
Meantime, “Argo” skewers the film industry, too. John Goodman excels a sarcastic make-up
artist and Alan Arkin brings multiple dimensional to Lester Siegel. Indeed, Arkin steals every scene in which he
appears. Affleck and Terrio based their spine
tingling saga on the 2007 article "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to
Rescue Americans from Tehran" by Joshuah Bearman that “Wired” magazine
published. You can go on-line and read
the informative article.Bearman's article is insightful. Incidentally,
although things went pretty much as planned, the CIA had to keep the affair
hushed up until 1997 when President Clinton officially declassified the operation. Nevertheless, the liberties that the filmmakers
take to enhance the dramatic impact aren’t as drastic as you might imagine. Affleck and company deserve kudos for not
making the Iranian adversaries look like cretinous, one-dimensional villains. “Argo” qualifies as one of the freshest, most
stimulating films that you will ever see.
