Argo

Argo, the new Ben Affleck movie, is based on the real live events that took place in Iran in 1979.  It kick-starts when an angry mob storms the American Embassy in Tehran and take 50 Americans hostage.  Six embassy workers escape through the back and seek refuge in the residence of the Canadian Ambassador.

Back in Washington everyone is up in arms and the task to get the six back home falls to the C.I.A “extraction” expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). Many plans are being considered, but none seem feasible or safe.

Faced with this problem Mendez comes up with the ridiculous idea to get the six out under the guise of making a SiFi film. With the help of special-effects expert and Academy Award winner John Chambers (John Goodman) and prominent producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) Mendez creates a bogus film company called Studio Six and even invites the media to a fake press conference. With posters, storyboards and a buzz backing up the story Mendez then enters Iran under the pretense of scouting for locations and issues false identities for the six Americans in hiding to fly them out.

The story sounds so implausible it’s hard to believe that it is true, that it worked is even more unbelievable. This incredible story wasn’t declassified until 1997 and really makes for a good movie. Affleck proves his doubters wrong again and like in “Gone Baby Gone” he surrounds himself with formidable actors, even in the supporting roles.

Argo is a great film and even though Affleck takes the liberty to spice up the action a bit towards the end, the film has an authentic feel to it. After all Argo never claims to be a documentary. The only downside to the film is that the science-fiction film Argo was never actually made, a film that Goodman’s character Chambers describes as ‘a twenty-million-dollar Star Wars rip-off” and you can’t help but feel that Arkins as Siegle is right when he stipulates “If I’m going to make a fake movie, it’s going to be a fake hit.”

The closing scene of Argo also seems to be too drawn out, there is no need for it and it detracts from the clever suspense filled film that Argo otherwise is. But overall Affleck has done good and Argo is well worth the price of a ticket.