Had some time today, so I went with a good friend to see Ben Affleck's new Argo movie based on the true story of the six Americans who escaped being kidnapped during the 1979 American embassy invasion in Iran by hiding out in a Canadian diplomat's house, and American "escape expert" Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) who helped them escape by having them pose as a Canadian movie production team. I have to be honest and say I didn't know many of the details of this story, so this in part was a learning experience for me.
Affleck the director did a great job on several fronts. The cinematography was fantastic as the integration of old archive footage in Iran with newly shot footage was flawless. The shot of an elderly Iranian woman in her chador eating fried chicken at an Iranian KFC (who would have known?) was priceless and good for a laugh. He also did a nice job replicating the terror and uncertainty the six escapees must have gone through while hiding out not knowing if the Iranians knew they existed, while also knowing they would probably be killed if they did and were caught. In the scenes when Affleck the actor was driving through Tehran in an old beat up VW van, or walking amongst the angry Iranian people in a busy downtown area, you could actually relate to the tension and fear the real Tony Mendez must have felt. This tension was nicely broken up by the scenes in Hollywood where a veteran movie producer (played by Alan Arkin) and a special effects expert (played by John Goodman) helped Tony Mendez hatch his cover plot of a Canadian movie production team doing advance scouting for possible filming locations in Iran.
The supporting case, in addition to Arkin and Goodman, included Bryan Cranston as a CIA director and Kyle Chandler as President Carter's Chief-of-Staff (and dead ringer to) Hamilton Jordan. Both were top notch. The actors who played the various Iranian leads throughout the film were excellent. In fact, the entire cast was dead on. During the closing credits, side by side shots of the six real escapees were shown alongside the actors who portrayed them in the movie. The resemblances of each were uncanny.
So that's about as far into the plot I'll go, because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. However, I do have a couple of gripes. The movie did state up front that it was "based on a true story", which means the writers and film makers every so often took the liberty to add a scene which may not have actually have happened in order to liven up the plot. In this movie, many of these fictional additions were so obvious, that I'm pretty sure I could pick out quite a few of them. Not to give away anything, but I have a pretty good feeling that much of what happened at the end of the movie during the airport sequence was heavily altered to add some obvious drama. As an example, the escapees manage to make it to their gate and board an old rickety bus that will take them to their awaiting airplane. Simultaneously, and unbeknownst to them, the Iranian militia are moving through the airport to try and stop them. Time is of the essence. As soon as they board the bus and attempt to drive off.....yes, you guessed it.....the bus driver is unable to shift gears in the bus. For several agonizing seconds, the bus driver grinds the gears until it finally lodges into first gear, and he drives away as the militia reaches their gate. "Hollywood drama", as I like to call it. Sure, it added to the suspense, but how many dozens of times have you seen that in a movie? And there are several other instances of this type of "Hollywood drama" that, unfortunately, effected my enjoyment of the movie some.
However, there are many more positive aspects to the movie than negative, and as a result I would definitely recommend it. Based on my rating system of 1 (skip it), 2 (rent it), 3 (worth matinee price) or 4 (worth full movie price), I'd give it a 3. The newspapers recently mentioned Argo as a possible Oscar contender this year. I'm not sure about that. As of now, I don't think I'd have a problem putting it in a top 10 list for the year, but I don't think it's worthy of being the best movie of the year. To me, it was an enjoyable, entertaining slightly above average dramatic action film. But not much more than that.
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