Argo (2012)

Director: Ben Affleck

Screenplay: Chris Terrio (based on Tony Mendez’s book and Joshuah Bearman’s article) 

Cast: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston 

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Time: 120 minutes

Bottom-line: Remarkable direction from Affleck; one of the best films of the decade

  "From the director of The Town comes the declassified true story" is what the cover photo of Argo said, and Ben Affleck tries his directing skills at making a political thriller, after a mystery thriller (Gone Baby Gone) and an action film (The Town). He wasn’t nominated for the Oscar, but the film was the winner of the Academy Award for the Best Picture. In Argo, Affleck brings us the true story of the planned escape mission to rescue six U.S diplomats from Iran, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. 

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter grants the Iranian Shah asylum in the United States, much to the agitation of the Iranian public. They storm into the US embassy in Iran, demanding that the shah be tried and hanged. They capture over fifty staff from the embassy and take them as hostages, but six people escape, and hide in the Canadian Ambassador’s house. Meanwhile, in the US, the State Department calls in Tony Mendez (Affleck) to exfiltrate the six members from Iran. He criticizes their ideas, but cannot come up with one himself. After seeing Battle for the Planet of the Apes, he gets an idea: he would go to Iran, and make the six members look like a film crew who are looking for exotic locations to film Argo, a science fiction adventure film. He would provide them with credentials and background information. At the same time in Iran, the soldiers find out that six members have escaped, and they ask several children to reassemble shreds of paper found in the embassy, so that the faces of the escapees are revealed. Does Mendez get the diplomats out of Iran in time? Or does the military capture them before they can leave the country? Watch Affleck’s Argo to find out.

John Goodman as John Chambers (left); Alan
Arkin as Lester (middle) and Ben Affleck as
Tony Mendez

When it comes to making biopics, or even films like this that are based on true stories, the story is already there. The director’s skills are shown in making a usually boring part of history into an interesting one. Scorsese managed to do so in The Aviator, Phyllida doesn’t quite do so in The Iron Lady, but Ben Affleck does a splendid job in this 2012 blockbuster. The historical part: about the history of Iran, the reign of the shah, and the US granting him asylum, are all shown in the form of comics and news coverage. From the first minute, where the Iranians storm into the embassy, till the last minute of their escape mission, the story is always fast-paced.

Bryan Cranston as Jack O'Donnell (left), with Ben
Affleck

What I particularly liked about this film is that it contains only suspense thrills. There is no unwanted splattering of blood, no unwanted gunfights (like in Affleck’s The Town); just smart thrills. The quick cuts between the ambassador’s house where Mendez tutors the six members to escape, and the Iranian soldiers slowly reassembling the shreds of paper proves quite effective in giving the thrills. On one side you think Mendez’s plan is pretty good, but on the other hand, you start to have doubts when you see the faces of the escapees slowly taking shape from the bits of paper. This method of shifting between two tracks in several scenes in the film provides lot of suspense. The scenes in the airport in the last half an hour are so tense that you will always be on the edge of your seat. 

Ben Affleck has done a great job in direction, but when I saw his acting, I felt that he hated his own film! Throughout the film, he puts on a sort of bored and ‘why-should-I-act’ look on his face, except in the last five minutes or so, when he smiles for the first time in the film. However, Alan Arkin (who plays Lester Seigel) and John Goodman (who plays make-up artist John Chambers) have acted fairly well, providing bits of humour here and there. The six diplomats hiding in the ambassador’s house have acted superbly: displaying sadness, tension, happiness and various other emotions. The dialogues are quite witty. My favourite one was when the President asks Mendez whether he has any worse ideas than this one, and his friend Jack (Cranston) says, “This is the best bad idea we have, sir.”  

Affleck (standing), and the six diplomats
in the Canadian Ambassador's house. 

Thumbs-up to the score as well. It is fast and suspenseful during the thrilling scenes, and it is soft and melodious during the emotional scenes, particularly towards the end. The photography is also superb. As I said, the quick cuts between the parallel tracks add to the thrills. I like the way Affleck shows the historical events in the form of comics in the beginning. But, he shows the aftermath of the escape mission in the form of text on the screen, and this, along with the soft background music, provides a fairly good ending.    

Poster of the actual Argo

To sum up, Ben Affleck’s Argo is a masterpiece. It is perhaps the best English film I have seen since The Social Network. An already famous, declassified story made better by first-rate direction, good photography, and some great bits of acting make Argo worthy of tremendous praise. However, I just felt that the Oscar committee mixed up a couple of nominations. In my opinion, they should have nominated Affleck for Best Director, instead of nominating Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor. 

My Rating: 5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 96%