Argo

[mementomori]

I liked this but I thought the Hollywood bits were so weak and unfunny that it stopped me from full on recommending the movie to others.

[Shalamar]

I actually got a huge kick out of the comments about how the fictional movie was "a rip-off of Star Wars", because I remember being around in 1979 and seeing ads for God only knows how many Star Wars wannabees.

The storyboards that showed a pink Chewbacca and a C-3PO lookalike had me rolling.

[bklynred]

There's something called Argo: Inside Story on the Discovery Channel, it started at 8 pm EST.

[petitesuite]

Just saw it and absolutely loved it. I wish there had been a little more about behind-the-scenes Canada and U.S. dealings, but other than that it was perfect. All the performances were great, and it was shockingly tense considering that you do, of course, know how it ends. Also, fun fact: my father (who's Iranian, came to the United States in the early 80's) lived a block away from the US embassy in Iran at the time. I think someone upthread asked if any Iranians were able to leave--many of them were, via various means, and I'm related to about half of them.

[bklynred]

That's cool, petitesuite.

[waytoocheerful]

Mar 4, 2013 14:32:03 GMT -4 petitesuite said:

Just saw it and absolutely loved it. I wish there had been a little more about behind-the-scenes Canada and U.S. dealings, but other than that it was perfect. All the performances were great, and it was shockingly tense considering that you do, of course, know how it ends. Also, fun fact: my father (who's Iranian, came to the United States in the early 80's) lived a block away from the US embassy in Iran at the time. I think someone upthread asked if any Iranians were able to leave--many of them were, via various means, and I'm related to about half of them.

Glad so many in your family made it out!

[gitsie007]

Great movie and I was yelling at my TV during the part of the plane taking off.

It definitely deserved the Oscar.

[Ginger]

Finally got around to seeing this. It was great. My only complaint, and it wasn't a huge complaint, was that the Hollywood movie cliches that were added on to the story were really obvious. The subplot about Tony Mendez being separated from, and then reuniting with his wife was totally unnecessary (and not even true.) The whole airport runway chase was a little over the top, and as I was watching it I was thinking, "This probably didn't really happen." And it hadn't. I think a better filmmaker could have gotten enough dramatic tension out of the airport escape as it actually happened. (Even though it went smoothly, it was still incredibly tense, I'm sure.) Maybe someday Affleck will be that filmmaker.

Also, it wouldn't have been too difficult to throw in a few lines about all the stuff the Canadians were doing behind the scenes. In fact, it would have made the movie even more interesting. But the "Brits and the Kiwis" have a right to be miffed too, because the movie made it sound like they turned the 6 away from their embassies and left them in the street, which wasn't true.

[Mugsy]

I suggest anyone who still believes Argo was a true story watch "Our Man in Tehran", which was shown at TIFF this year.

Even Jimmy Carter, the president at the time of the hostage crisis, thinks Argo was ridiculous in its false portrayal of what happened:

In a CNN interview, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter addressed the controversy by stating: "90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good. But Ben Affleck's character in the film was... only in Tehran a day and a half. And the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process."

Argo was a tense, amusing and entertaining movie, but it was fiction based on some basic facts.