Argo

Fascinating historical fiction. If you don't know the story, during the Iran hostage situation in the early 80's, several embassy employees escaped capture and hid out with the Canadians. The US government needed a way to get them out of the country. Presumably, if they were discovered, the fact that they were hiding in the first place would support the Iranian government accusation that US embassy employees were spies. Enter Ben Affleck. His CIA character is able to concoct a crazy scheme by which he poses as a location scout for a film, flies into Iran, connects with the hiding Americans and they all fly out together as part of the film scout team. Only sounds crazy, but it was better than the idea of buying the 6 Americans bicycles and asking them to ride 300 miles to the Turkish border where they could try to sneak across.

My own recollection of the actual time and events is limited to seeing lots of yellow ribbons on trees. I have to memory of the story portrayed here. I also have to memory of the footage that was shown on public news. Affleck uses this actual footage to set tone and remind viewers of the national and international mood during the situation. As a film, this was entertaining and engaging. As a history lesson, it is at best an approximation - romanticizing the weeks of sitting around, smoking, drinking, discussing. Nobody is arguing the veracity of the facts portrayed (let's just say liberty was taken). Instead, we are treated with a stylized view of an important historical event in this country that is fully colored by being in the middle of the cold war. I wonder if a filmmaker could make an alternate history film of the same events taking place 20 years later. It would look more like invasion, I am sure, and less like 400+ days of negotiations with no hostages killed.
4 stars (out of 5)