I do apologise for the rudery in the title but please note the inverted commas! It is a line from the film 'Argo' which, courtesy of my mate Rupe's magical recording-thingie, I watched last night. It was an, er, interesting film - and if you sense the hesitation and lack of enthusiasm you are spot on. The tale it told was quite extraordinary, even more so given that it was based on true events which followed the Iranian revolution and the downfall of the Shah. Half a dozen US embassy staff found refuge in the Canadian embassy and the CIA was tasked with producing a plan to get them out before they were discovered and before the Iranians closed the Canadian embassy as well. A CIA officer called Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) came up with a plan which was so way out one wonders what he was smoking at the time! Of course, such plans always earn the soubriquet of 'audacious' when they are successful but when they fail, as poor old Jimmy Carter's effort to rescue the other Embassy staff by coup de main did, you end up as one of history's prats! Happily, against all odds, Mendez's plan succeeded. The CIA are frequently lambasted, and frequently deserve to be, but when 'the boys done good' then I am happy to give them a cheer.
Unfortunately, this film fell between two genres. It would have worked as a straightforward documentary with certain scenes and events played by actors, or, and perhaps better still, it would have worked as a drama just loosely based on real events. Not too surprisingly, the best parts of the film were the scenes in Hollywood where the cover story of a Star Wars-type picture called Argo was concocted. Here, amongst its own kind, and with tongue firmly in cheek, it had the beginnings of what could have been an excellent satire because we met a gallery of fascinating Hollywood characters one of whom produced the witty line in my title. But needs must, we had to keep returning to Tehran and the 'captive' embassy staff who never had the time to differentiate themselves as individual characters. Ben Affleck playing the lead operative, Tony Mendez, attempted to do what Gary Oldman did as George Smiley in 'Tinker, Tailor ...', that is, to play him as absolutely straightfaced and unemotional but with Oldman you sensed the emotions seething beneath the surface, with Affleck, hiding behind a huge head of hair and beard, you didn't so much wonder what he was thinking but whether he was thinking at all!
Still, it was, as I say, interesting and therefore worth watching. Also, there was some humour to be derived from a true story of daring-do which actually 'out-darey-dooed' the best fiction from the Bourne Supremacy films.
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