"True or False. Six Americans escaped the country of Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-1980 by posing as a movie crew filming a science-fiction saga in Iran called Argo."
Sounds ridiculous. But it was very real. Truth be told though, Floyd would not have asked that question then because according to the U.S. government, that never happened. It was classified. The escape really did happen but all credit was given to the Canadian government. President Bill Clinton declassified the operation in 1997, and the world learned of what really happened. That story is told here in director Ben Affleck's tremendous work, which was adapted from several sources including Tony Mendez's book The Master of Disguise. Mendez was the CIA operative who Affleck plays in the film, and watching the story unfold one can only wonder how something so ludicrous could have been believed by just about everyone in Iran. Simply put, those executing the operation really did cover all their bases. In fact, Mendez claimed that after the phony studio was shut down upon completion of the rescue, the phony studio address still received about two dozen scripts, including one from Steven Spielberg.
Let us dive into Argo.
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The film opens with a brief narrated summary of Iran in the 1900's, telling us with photos the story of how the Shah came into power but was overthrown in 1979. He was granted asylum in the United States for humanitarian reasons (the Shah was cancer-stricken), which angered Iran greatly because they felt the Shah had crimes against humanity to answer to. That brings us to the U.S. Embassy in Iran, which is fortunately closed off and gated to protect everyone inside from the massive protests outside. That doesn't mean everyone inside doesn't hear those protests, however, and they're all nervous, especially the U.S. citizens working there. Once protestors begin to climb the fence and reach the building itself, all hell breaks loose. Orders are given to start destroying all embassy records via shredding or burning. Equipment is also destroyed. The marines charged with guarding the embassy are armed, but their leader cautions them not to shoot anyone. They limit their efforts to the use of tear gas. The head of embassy security attempts to go outside and reason with the militants, but he's immediately captured and taken hostage. They force him to call the front door to be opened, and once that happens the militants storm the embassy and take all of the diplomats and embassy staff hostage. That is, all but six of them. Those six were in the only building with a direct exit to the street, and they flee, ultimately hiding out in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).
It's now 69 days since the embassy takeover and the hostages were taken. The CIA calls in operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). Canadians are increasingly uncomfortable with keeping the six Americans at their embassy, as there are rumours that Iranians have set up sweatshops utilizing Iranian children to go through the laborious process of piecing together the shredded documents. It's only a matter of time before they are able to realize that not all embassy staff have been accounted for, and in reconstructing the shredded ID photos, they will know who to look for. Those six in question are Robert Anders (Tate Donovan), Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane), married couple Joe and Kathy Stafford (Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishé) and married couple Mark and Cora Lijek (Christopher Denham, Clea DuVall).
Tony meets with members of government including his supervisor Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston), Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (Bob Gunton) and Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan (Kyle Chandler). The best idea pitched thus far is for bicycles to be available for the hostages to take to the Turkish border. Tony dismisses this idea immediately. It's winter in Iran, there's snow on the ground, and they'd be biking 300 miles. No one has a better idea. That night at home, Tony calls his son, who lives with his mom as the couple is separated. They both watch a Planet of the Apes movie on TV while they talk, and the wheels begin to turn in Tony's head.
The next day, Tony pitches the idea to have the six Americans pose as Canadian filmmakers, location-scouting in Iran for a new science fiction film. That would provide them a legitimate reason to leave the country, and they could do so by plane. He says he even has someone in Hollywood that can help. That would be John Chambers (John Goodman), an Oscar winner for his makeup work in the Apes movie franchise who has worked with the CIA before. Tony is given the OK to go to Los Angeles to meet with John. Meanwhile, the Iranians who have now overtaken the embassy and are working out of it realize that six American are unaccounted for. They begin to work on figuring out who they are.
In Hollywood, Tony pitches his idea to John. John says they'll have to do everything they would do as if this were a real film, most importantly needing a full script ready. They also need a director, and they meet with Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), a director pretty much past his prime but willing to help as well. He agrees they need a script first.
At Canadian ambassador Taylor's house, their Iranian housekeeper Sahar (Sheila Vand) begins to wonder why the six houseguests have been there so long and never leave. Taylor tells his wife that Sahar "knows." Meanwhile back in Hollywood, the trio work on finding a script. Tony finds a spec for a sci-fi adventure called Argo and they all run with it, creating the fictional Studio 6 and meeting with the screenwriter Max Klein (Richard Kind). Klein is hesitant to sell Siegel the film for the amount of money offered, saying MGM is buying up sci-fi like crazy right now. Siegel tells Klein the truth is the script is garbage and he's lucky to get anything, plus Warren Beatty told him MGM is going over budget as it is right now because their Zulu film is about to have all the Zulu extras unionize and threaten a strike. Klein sells. Later, Siegel admits to Chambers he made that whole thing up.
Things continue to get worse in Iran, with militants even going so far as to take a small group of hostages, tie them up, blindfold them, and line them up in preparation for execution by firing squad. The weapons are fired, but they're not loaded. Just a cruel hoax. Opposition members to the Ayatollah are being shot or hung from construction cranes. Jack informs Tony that Iranian airport security has also been increased due to an attempted escape by someone from another country. Tony has about 72 hours to get this whole thing together. Undeterred, Tony and the others gather up actors (including Adrienne Barbeau!) for a costumed read-through of the script. Studio is formed, script is purchased, cast and crew are hired and publicity has begun in the trade papers. Tony brings the full idea and all of this information to Vance, admitting any plan is a bad idea but this is the best bad idea there is. The government officially sanctions the operation.
Tony, under the name of Kevin Harkins, first travels to Istanbul to make preparations there. He then goes to Teheran Airport in Iran and pockets some extra copies of arrival/departure customs slips when he's there. Tony is driven to the Canadian ambassador's house and meets Taylor, who informs Tony that the Canadian embassy is going to be closed soon for security purposes. Tony is next brought to the Americans. He introduces himself as Kevin Harkins and tells them what is about to happen in the next couple of days, which is the fake-movie idea. The Americans, especially Joe, aren't sold on the idea, but they all know they have to get out. Tony gives them all folders with their fake biographies and tells them they must memorize these completely, immediately and also add to them how they see fit. Tony plans to bring them all to a street bazaar tomorrow afternoon for them all to "location shoot". This is necessary to keep up the charade. Joe refuses to go, as he doesn't trust Tony being that Tony has already admitted that "Kevin" isn't even his real name. Meanwhile, the Iranian militants receive information about the movie shoot as the children continue to work on reconstructing the shredded ID photos.
The next day, Tony buys an old Volkswagen bus and goes to pick up the Americans. Joe is still not on board. Tony admits to Joe his real name and biography, including that this type of rescue operation is what he does for a living, and he promises Joe he will get them all out tomorrow. Joe agrees to go to the bazaar. On the way there, a street mob temporarily blocks them and pound on the bus while the bus creeps through. In the bus, Tony tests everyone on their biographical information, including their names, birthplaces and birthdates, and what role they are playing here as part of the phony film crew.
At the bazaar, a cultural liaison greets them all and shows them around the bazaar for the location shooting. Things are going fine for awhile until one vendor gets upset that Kathy, who is posing as the production designer, takes a Polaroid shot of his selling station. Kathy keeps her cool and willingly gives up the photo, but the vendor and liaison continue to argue. The situation escalates quickly but the liaison does manage to get everyone to safety. They soon return to the bus, all quite shaken. What the "film crew" don't know is while they were at the bazaar, they were all having their photos taken by militants as well. Sahar is also visited at the gate of the ambassador's house by a military leader. He asks Sahar how long the guests have been there. Sahar says 2 days, and everyone here is a friend of Iran. Sahar has kept their cover after all.
That night, Tony quizzes the Americans some more, saying they need to be more-than-100% ready tomorrow to answer everything quickly and concisely. Tony later gets a call from Jack saying that President Carter has authorized a military rescue attempt of the known hostages, and the Argo operation has been canceled to avoid any potential conflicts. Tony is furious and wonders who is now responsible for these six Americans. Jack's angry too but his hands are tied. Tony and Taylor agree not to tell the Americans of this yet.
The next morning arrives. Siegel and Chambers receive word that the operation is scrapped. Tony wakes up, calls Jack and tells him that he, Tony, is responsible for the Americans and he's getting them to the airport as originally planned, and then hangs up. Jack immediately goes into emergency panic mode, making call after call to everyone up the ladder to have President Carter release the plane tickets that were set to be released for Tony and the others. Meanwhile, the Iranian military leader at the embassy is looking at the photos of the "film crew" from yesterday's trip to the bazaar.
Tony picks up the Americans. Taylor and his wife are heading to the train station, but first have the communication equipment at the house destroyed. Tony tells the Americans of the three security checkpoints they will encounter. The second of them is the customs portion involving the slips he has in his pocket. They will give a yellow copy, which they are to fill out now with the white copy on top of it. When they give the yellow slip, the white slip won't be already in the airport files. That white copy should be from when they arrived. They will have to play it off like it just is lost. In Washington, Jack vehemently argues with someone and says he needs to reach Chief of Staff Jordan right now, but Jordan is in a meeting and not taking calls. Jack decides to pretend to be someone from Pace University, where Jordan's kids attend. This gets Jordan to answer the phone. Jack quickly says what the situation is, and Jordan immediately calls for word to reach the President.
We're at the airport. Tony goes to the ticket counter first. His name is entered into the computer, but no tickets are shown. Tony asks for the clerk to try again. On the second try, the tickets are there, having been released by President Carter just in time. First checkpoint complete. Now for the customs checkpoint. Bob Anders gives his yellow slip. The white one isn't found, so security checks on this. No white slip is found anywhere. Bob keeps his cool as he answers security's questions, saying he's the director of the film they were location-scouting. Tony shows the security detail the letter they have from the Iranian Minister of Culture permitting them to have performed the scouting. Security lets them through. Second checkpoint complete, and this looked to the hardest one. Meanwhile, the militants in the embassy match up an almost-completely-reconstructed photo ID of Mark from the embassy and realize the face matches one of those on a photo from the bazaar visit yesterday.
The final checkpoint is just before boarding, they show their passports. However, they are detained by the guard who seems unsure of them simply because they look American. The guard brings them into an office and yells at them in Farsi. Joe takes over the situation since he speaks Farsi, and calmly tells the guard who they are and what they are doing there. He's aided by visual storyboards and even provides space-movie sound effects. The guard does calm down but says (now speaking English) that they still need to be verified and cannot board the plane until then. Tony gives a business card and says the studio can verify who they are. The guard tries to call the studio, but Siegel and Chambers aren't there because they were told the operation was shut down. However, the duo are on the way to the studio to pack everything up and they get there just before the guard hangs up the repeatedly-ringing line, with Chambers answering the phone by saying "Studio 6." The guard asks for Kevin Harkins and is told that Harkins is out of the country on a location scouting. Tony and the Americans are cleared to board the plane. Tony tells the guard to keep the storyboards as a gift.
Elsewhere, the ambassador's house is raided but everyone is gone. Taylor and his wife have boarded a train, and Sahar has fled to Iraq. Also, the Iranians at the embassy alert someone that the film crew are actually the missing Americans. Security gets word of this as well, and militants race to reach the plane as it is about to take off. Just as the militant vehicles reach the plane, it begins to ascend. Tony sees those vehicles out his window but is glad to see they've left the ground. Everyone is still tense and quiet though until an announcement plays on the plane that they have left Iranian airspace, and everyone then celebrates emotionally.
The Americans all arrive in Canada, and Canada gets all the credit for the rescue in the news media. This is deliberate, as the CIA involvement is wanted to stay hidden by the American government. Tony reaches Washington and has all the Argo materials archived, save for one storyboard he sneaks back into his satchel. Jack finds Tony and tells him he's going to receive the Intelligence Star from President Carter, but since the mission is classified, so will that award, so it's going to be given to him privately and then taken back. Tony doesn't mind. He travels to see his wife and son. An on-screen epilogue states that after 444 days, the rest of the U.S. hostages were released safely, John Chambers received an Intelligence Medal from the CIA, and that when President Clinton declassified the Argo operation in 1997, Tony Mendez was given back his Intelligence Star. Closing credits roll with movie photos of the cast and events of the time side-by-side with the actual photos of the people and events that took place.
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While the story told is true, dramatic license was certainly taken, which Affleck freely admits to. The actual escape via plane was not nearly as harrowing as it played out in the movie. They left early in the morning and got right through every security checkpoint. There weren't even any military guards present.....Warner Brothers used their old "Big W" logo in the opening credits of the film. That was the logo used during the time period of when this film takes place.....President Jimmy Carter praised the film but did say that in actuality, "90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian.".....John Goodman's portrayal of John Chambers is the only time that a real-life Oscar winner is portrayed in a film that won Best Picture.....The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and drew criticism for minimizing the Canadian efforts in the rescue operation. Affleck agreed and rewrote the postscript text to state that the CIA's operations complemented the Government of Canada's efforts, and the mission has become an admirable example of international cooperation.....Sheila Vand, who portrayed Sahar, also narrates the opening minutes of the film telling the history of the Shah's rise and fall in Iran.
This film was released in the States somewhat quietly in October of 2012. There was no Oscar push in the early advertisements, no glowing reviews filling up the commercials. It just turned out, the film really left an impression on people. I was one of those people. I saw the film in early November, and afterwards I couldn't stop talking about it. In the weeks that followed, more and more positive reviews started getting out there. I mentioned earlier that Argo premiered at the TIFF. It got great feedback, but another film got more of it from the TIFF. That film is Silver Linings Playbook. Neither was necessarily a frontrunner going into awards season though. In fact, there really wasn't a frontrunner at all. But then the first guilds starting announcing their winners, and Argo was winning all the top awards. The Oscar nominations came out and Argo received 7 nominations. In my Oscar predictions blog from 2/20/2013, I said the following:
"I loved Silver Linings Playbook, even more the second time I saw it, and if any rom-com finally deserves to break the AMPAS glass ceiling and win the top prize, this one does. But of all the nominated films, and as I've told a number of people going back to the day of when the nominations came out, I haven't seen a better [2012] film than Argo. It was great. The story was so outlandish, but completely factually-based, and thrilling to watch unfold. There wasn't a single wasted moment."
Those 85th Annual Academy Awards turned out to be as wide-open as the early Oscar season indicated it could be. No film was really dominating the wins, and by the time Ang Lee won Best Director for Life of Pi, that film had racked up a leading four wins with just Best Picture left to go, so it was possible a dark horse was going to cross that finish line first, especially since Argo had up to that point just took home two trophies for Adapted Screenplay (Chris Terrio) and Film Editing (William Goldenberg). Other categories that Argo was nominated in--Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score and Supporting Actor (Arkin)--went elsewhere. And as you may remember, and/or have astutely noticed by now within this paragraph, Ben Affleck did not get a nomination for Best Director, a slight that had everyone in Hollywood crying foul about. Affleck, for his part, took it in stride, hilariously stating that he wasn't nominated for Best Lead Actor either and no one was protesting THAT slight.
When the smoke cleared, First Lady Michelle Obama (!) announced the winner for Best Picture via satellite from the White House, and Argo reigned victorious over Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty. The film's producers were George Clooney, Grant Heslov and...yes...Ben Affleck, so he scored an Oscar here after all. The win for Argo delivered the first Best Picture to not have its director nominated in his/her category since Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford). It also gave us a tie with 1968's Gigi for the shortest Best Picture film title in history, just four letters. To show how varied the winners list from the 85th Annual ceremony was, every film nominated for Best Picture except for Beasts took home at least one Oscar. 2012 had a damn great slate of films, and Argo certainly is a solid piece of evidence to back that claim up. It's surprisingly funny, has a great cast (Arkin is especially fantastic) and tells an amazing, ludicrous but true story. See Argo. It's a winner.
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