Argo

One area of American society that always interests me is the work of the FBI and CIA. So on hearing about this film and the fact that it was based on a true story my appetite was whetted.

The film is based on the aftermath of an attack on the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. The vast majority of the embassy staff were taken as hostages, but six escaped and took refuge in the Canadian ambassador’s home. The ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) then tried to devise a plan to enable the Americans to leave the country without being captured by the Iranians.

In the US, CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), has been asked to help secure the release of the Americans. Mendez comes up with the plan to create a fake movie, so that he can pose as a Canadian producer, go to Iran on a film location scout and bring back the Americans who are to be seen as part of his film crew.

Despite Mendez’s boss’s reservations, it is obvious that this is the only viable option. Mendez gets in touch with a make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and convinces him to help him with the mission by creating the buzz around Hollywood press about this film. Chambers advises that in order to make everything look as authentic as possible, Mendez needs to have a script and a director. Chambers introduces him to Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) who agrees to be a part of the charade.

The story moves on to show how Mendez gets into Iran and how he convinces the both the Americans and his manager to go along with his audacious plan.

The film is really interesting as it was about an event that I was not aware of and it is the type of story that I really like. The attention to detail is impressive in terms of everything looking like it came from the time of the story. I was particularly struck when the credits were rolling, how uncannily similar the Americans and their actor counterparts were made to look. 

The film was really gripping and tense right up until the last few frames, testament to the subject and  that the film never went down the ‘worthy’ route which so frequently happens. My only reservation is that in some scenes the Americans were outright rude to Mendez, I find it very difficult to believe that this would actually have happened in real life. If someone is risking their own life in order to save yours, I think little more gratitude would have been displayed.

Verdict: A really tense film which shows an audacious, and in places, ludicrous plan in action. Gripping, well acted and directed, this is a very entertaining film that proves that Affleck is developing into quite the actor and director. And the little catchphrase involving the word Argo will stay with you for a while.