In 1979, hundreds of student activists stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, due to outrage over the fact that the United States was coddling their deposed, murderous dictator. They took hostage the embassy's staff, save for a handful of staff who managed, in the chaos, to sneak out the back door and take refuge at the Canadian Ambassador's house. Director Ben Affleck's Argo is the dramatization of the remarkable true story behind the effort to rescue these individuals from what was, at the time, the most hostile territory on earth, for American citizens.
Having found out about the six escapees from the embassy, the U.S. government works overtime trying to figure out how to get them out of Iran, with their schemes ranging from having the six pose as teachers to the harebrained idea of having them ride bicycles out of the country. When the government brings aboard Tony Mendez (Affleck, in a wonderfully understated performance) an exfiltration expert from the Central Intelligence Agency, on board, he is initially as stumped as everyone else in the room, but when a phone conversation with his ten-year-old son later that night prompts Mendez to switch onto a science fiction movie Mendez seizes upon a scheme which, as the cliche goes, is so crazy it might actually work: Mendez would go to Iran and have the six Americans pose as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science fiction film in the vein of Star Wars in Iran.
The ruse requires that an actual production be staged, and for this purpose Mendez recruits Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) who has used his skill with prosthetics many times in the past to help Mendez in his operations, who in turn recruits over-the-hill Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), and together, the three of them acquire a forgotten script titled "Argo" and then create a great deal of hype for a production that doesn't actually exist. Mendez's scheme, described as "the best bad idea" among all of the stinkers concocted by the government to rescue the embassy staffers, gets the green light from the C.I.A. and he travels to Iran with six fake passports in the hope of making it work. In the meantime, the revolutionary government is closing in on the six escapees, with sweatshop kids piecing together shredded documents, determining the identities of who actually worked in the embassy.
Mendez meets up with the six refugees at the Canadian ambassador's house, and apart from the chaos just outside the walls of the house he must also grapple with their collective fear at what could happen to them if the escape plan goes south. The clock is ticking.
Atmosphere and period authenticity are everything in this handsomely-crafted thriller, and Affleck and crew crank both of them up to 11 as early as the opening billboard, which features the Warner Brothers logo used in the 1970s as opposed to the current one. It's not the first time such a technique has been used in a period film but it is extremely effective here, especially when followed with a judiciously-edited and narrated sequence of historical events that led to that fateful day in 1979 and an extremely grainy texture that strongly contrasts with the slick digital imagery of most contemporary films.
I purposely avoided reading any historical accounts on what has been dubbed as "the Canadian Caper" before watching the movie because, quite simply, I didn't want to know if all the embassy workers made it out all right, and to my mind it was a good call as it allowed me to live very much in the moment that Affleck, his cast and crew captured. What followed was some genuine, nail-biting tension.
For all of his skill in weaving dramatic tension, though, Affleck's real narrative coup in this film, was juxtaposing the tension in Iran with the glitz of tinseltown; as reel and real Hollywood veterans, Goodman and Arkin clearly enjoy sniping at the hypocrisy of the entertainment world and its hype machine, and they are an absolute delight to watch, particularly Arkin as his Lester Siegel outfoxes a representative of the Writers' Guild of America trying to hustle him for a better offer for the previously ignored "Argo" script. Siegel also has the distinction of coining what is likely to be the film's most quoted phrase: "Argo f**k yourself." The surprisingly rich streak of humor that permeates the film sets this film apart from standard, dead-serious spy fare.
Much as I'd love to hail this film as perfect, though, there are a couple of somewhat "Hollywood" touches (ironically enough) throughout and towards the climax of the movie which felt a little bit jarring. The climactic parts I will not discuss so as not to spoil anything, but throughout the film I couldn't help but notice the shifty-eyed Iranian sitting behind desks skimming through reassembled photographs of the embassy staff, and I was particularly struck by the wild-eyed revolutionary army soldier constantly yelling at the characters during a pivotal scene. These weren't exactly mustache-twirling villains but something about their depiction kind of yelled Hollywood cliche, in contrast to the portrayal of the militants at other points in the film which did a far better job of conveying the Iranian's palpable and arguably justifiable rage against the U.S. In a movie which, for the most part, quite effectively captured the real-life plight of a handful of scared Americans, these caricatures, who feature prominently throughout the film, seemed a tad out of place and do not do its overall credibility too many favors.
All told, though, I think Affleck and crew can definitely hold their heads up high, having woven an utterly compelling if sometimes flawed storytelling tapestry. This is flaws notwithstanding, easily one of the best spy-thrillers I've seen in a while.
4.5/5
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