85. Argo (2012)

Plot Intro

It’s 1980, and Iran is in revolutionary turmoil, having overthrown a corrupt monarchy and replacing it with a conservative, Islamic republic. During all of this, in the middle of Tehran, a group of American embassy workers are in hiding from the Iranian army at the Canadian embassy. To get them out, CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) along with a crack team of diplomats, politicians and Hollywood movie-makers, hatch one of the most bizarre plans the US government has ever sanctioned. 

Doug says...

I came to Argo with a slight misconception that perhaps hindered my viewing experience. I thought this film, detailing how the CIA pretended to be shooting a sci-fi film in Iran to get hostages out, would actually focus on the pretend film. In my head I assumed there would be a large cast of would-be film stars nonplussed by the whole situation, to say nothing of numerous film workers and set designers, all blithely unaware that their whole project was fake. 

However, as good as that film would have been, this is not that. It is instead the story of how they put together the basis for a film, with a script reading and posters, and then used this to carefully weave their way through Iranian unrest and save a bunch of American foreign office workers. So while I enjoyed this film and found it a good piece of work, the film in my head was just so much better. 

This aside, Ben Affleck doesn’t do too badly. It’s a slow burner for the first two thirds and I’ll confess that I started losing interest about halfway through. It could be a good half hour shorter and there’s not much time spent evolving characters, but the premise is interesting, and for the last forty minutes, Affleck kicks everything into gear. It’s ridiculously tense with the hostages desperately trying to board the plane, and the police cottoning on to who they really are. While the last few moments are way too over the top and surely fictional, it’s a neat ending to the saga and very satisfying to watch. 

Where this film really lifts above the usual American Glory Stories for me, is in its refusal to paint the ‘enemy’ as bad. The Iranians are in revolt, but a clear telling of the history at the beginning shows you exactly why they are angry - and fairly so. And during the film, Affleck doesn’t let it sink into ‘us and them’ but rather just tells the story in a way that lets you draw your own conclusions. Even a shopkeeper who angrily yells at the ‘photographer’ (read: hostage in disguise) is shown to have lost a son to the wicked regime that the US aided. It’s not black and white, and it’s admirable how Affleck doesn’t shy away from this. 

In general, it’s a good film - the first two thirds veer on sluggish but the final third is as tense and thrilling as cinema can get. I particularly liked the use of real footage at the end to ground the whole thing in reality. 

Highlight 

The moment in the airport when one of the hostages suddenly starts rattling off in Farsi is thrilling and confusing. It’s some good acting and great cinema. 

Lowlight

Although I can see it’s being carefully set up, the first two thirds begin to drag and it’s yet another example of where a big pair of editing scissors wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Mark 

7/10

Paul says...

Argo is a film that I can really sink my teeth into. It tackles a fascinating historical event that had far-reaching consequences, and remains in living memory. It dissects a little-known, surprising mini-event within this Big Event. And it provides a huge amount of insight into a side of history that, until Western world’s interactions with the Middle East post-9/11, I knew very little about, without feeling like an A Level textbook. Like other historical pieces on our project like The Life of Emile Zola, Mutiny on the Bounty and A Man For All Seasons, Argo has all the trimmings of a Paul film.  

It was something of a surprise win in 2012. It nabbed the Best Picture prize from Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty, and only won 2 other awards on the night. Only Alan Arkin received an acting award nomination, and Affleck didn’t receive a nomination for Best Director (usually a sure-fire sign that you ain’t gettin’ Best Picture). 

And honestly, I think it’s a great win, although I do very much like Life of Pi and Django Unchained. As Doug says, the film is careful not to demonise the Iranians. They’re angry and uncontrollable in the throes of revolution, but we know why. The emphasis of the film is not on establishing American superiority over a nation that vehemently rejected the US, but rather on rescuing the innocent people trapped in the stampede without causing or provoking more bloodshed. This is such a pertinent message for a post-9/11 world, where too many people are sharing bollocks on Facebook about Muslims “invading” and “terrorising” the West and declaring the need to wage war against them. Argo is a well-constructed fable about how bloodless missions, although incredibly difficult and dangerous, will create survivors. War, however, absolutely will not. 

I also enjoyed the parallels with science-fiction movies, particularly Star Wars (which, in 1980, was the most important piece of sci-fi at the time), with some humorous nods towards Flash Gordon too (there’s an actor at a press event for the counterfeit movie dressed almost exactly like Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless). There’s a poignant montage about halfway through in which we flit between a table read of “Argo”, in which actors in ridiculous late-70s futuristic spandex spout out the most preposterous lines, and a haunting scene in which various American hostages are blindfolded by Iranian revolutionaries and made to think they’re about to be executed. The film also ends with images of Star Wars characters on a child’s toy shelf, accompanied by a sketch of a scene from “Argo” itself. 

Again, I get the impression that Affleck is displaying the need for alternatives to out-and-out jingoism, particularly against terrorists and the nations they are associated with. Any basement-dwelling nerd will tell you that the best sci-fi makes the viewer/reader analyse and re-think the political and social world in which they live. Affleck and his team of blustering, bickering blokes are aiming to achieve this throughout the film, under the cover of science fiction, as opposed to, say, an invasion, an atom bomb or a military intervention (and the Western world are pretty guilty of all three of those). 

I must say before I conclude that Affleck, in my opinion, should have got more Oscar recognition for his directing. The imagery of the film, from the sci-fi symbolism, through to Affleck arriving at Tehran and walking stoically past a huge poster of Ayatollah Khomeini, is magnificent. He also does sterling work on making the film grainier than it usually would be to create a stronger '70s/'80s vibe, and it really transports the audience into the situation at hand.

Unlike Doug, I found it all to be pacy, frantic, and tense from beginning to end. The claustrophobia and terror of the hostages are felt all the way through, from the opening riot scene to a climax at the airport that puts Love Actually to shame. Okay, this isn’t a film for everyone due to its huge slab of political themes, and it’s a film that values story over character and acting. But I was gripped, inspired and touched by the end, and that’s the sign of a pretty damn worthy film.

Highlight

The opening 15 minutes, in which various American embassy workers are panically shredding official documents and telephoning for help. Meanwhile, a colossal, flag-burning crowd are clamouring at the gates. I felt like I was right there, and wondered how I would cope in such a situation.  

Lowlight

Nothing much, to be honest. Ok, this film doesn’t have the whimsy or relaxation of last week’s The Artist, but it IS a film about the Iranian Revolution, and there’s some amusing banter between John Goodman and Alan Arkin as grouchy Hollywood workers roped into the whole scheme.

Mark

10/10