I heard so many good things about Argo before even setting foot in the theater. For me, this kind of hype usually ends in disappointment, but Argo...Argo, man, totally lived up to its accolades. The movie is taut, tense, thrilling, funny, and affecting all at the same time. That Ben Affleck is really proving to people that, hey, he totally wrote Good Will Hunting too!
Luckily for those who were born after 1980 or have zero political knowledge...Argo opens with a narration about the whole Iranian hostage debacle and is intercut with news footage and identical recreations to really drive its point home. Basically the quick gist is that Iran is mad at the US for putting their own Shah in place and extraditing him to the US after he was overthrown instead of letting the Iranians try him (and probably sentence him to death). So....they protest at the US Embassy, and shit gets a little out of hand. Six Americans decide to bolt instead of be taken hostage and hightail it to the Canadian Embassy for safe haven. However, shit is still hitting the fan, and they need OUT of Iran like pronto. That’s where Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) steps in. He’s the CIA’s key person in....I don’t know really, getting people out of sticky situations, I guess?
Anyhoo...so, Tony is racking his brain for ideas, and, while watching The Planet of the Apes, it comes to him—they’ll all pretend they’re a Canadian film crew scouting Middle Eastern locales for a shitty sci-fi film! It MIGHT just be crazy enough to work. First he’s gotta convince Kyle Chandler and Bryan Cranston, higher-ups at the State Department and the CIA, and then make all the necessary arrangements in Hollywood, which includes getting a top-notch makeup specialist on board (John Goodman) and a producer (Alan Arkin) who wouldn’t mind making a fake movie. Out in Hollywood, these three plant several seeds of proof that a real movie, Argo, is indeed getting made, including setting up shop, producing a run-through for press, and placing several ads in Hollywood movie mags. It’s also the setting for some of the best laughs, courtesy of Arkin, like “Argo fuck yourself.”
But it’s in Iran that all the tension of Argo comes into play. The scenes inside the Canadian Embassy are tense and claustrophobic. The opening moments of the Iranians storming the US Embassy are completely chaotic and had me literally gripping my seat. Those tense moments are nothing compared to when the seven are attempting to escape at the Iranian airport. Argo is a wonderful display of a talented writer and director and awesome cinematography. It’s a weird amalgamation of political drama, Hollywood satire, and thrilling tension, and Argo pulls all of it off spectacularly.
“Argo fuck yourself,” and totally believe the hype.
--Darcie Duttweiler
Luckily for those who were born after 1980 or have zero political knowledge...Argo opens with a narration about the whole Iranian hostage debacle and is intercut with news footage and identical recreations to really drive its point home. Basically the quick gist is that Iran is mad at the US for putting their own Shah in place and extraditing him to the US after he was overthrown instead of letting the Iranians try him (and probably sentence him to death). So....they protest at the US Embassy, and shit gets a little out of hand. Six Americans decide to bolt instead of be taken hostage and hightail it to the Canadian Embassy for safe haven. However, shit is still hitting the fan, and they need OUT of Iran like pronto. That’s where Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) steps in. He’s the CIA’s key person in....I don’t know really, getting people out of sticky situations, I guess?
Anyhoo...so, Tony is racking his brain for ideas, and, while watching The Planet of the Apes, it comes to him—they’ll all pretend they’re a Canadian film crew scouting Middle Eastern locales for a shitty sci-fi film! It MIGHT just be crazy enough to work. First he’s gotta convince Kyle Chandler and Bryan Cranston, higher-ups at the State Department and the CIA, and then make all the necessary arrangements in Hollywood, which includes getting a top-notch makeup specialist on board (John Goodman) and a producer (Alan Arkin) who wouldn’t mind making a fake movie. Out in Hollywood, these three plant several seeds of proof that a real movie, Argo, is indeed getting made, including setting up shop, producing a run-through for press, and placing several ads in Hollywood movie mags. It’s also the setting for some of the best laughs, courtesy of Arkin, like “Argo fuck yourself.”
But it’s in Iran that all the tension of Argo comes into play. The scenes inside the Canadian Embassy are tense and claustrophobic. The opening moments of the Iranians storming the US Embassy are completely chaotic and had me literally gripping my seat. Those tense moments are nothing compared to when the seven are attempting to escape at the Iranian airport. Argo is a wonderful display of a talented writer and director and awesome cinematography. It’s a weird amalgamation of political drama, Hollywood satire, and thrilling tension, and Argo pulls all of it off spectacularly.
“Argo fuck yourself,” and totally believe the hype.
--Darcie Duttweiler
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