“Argo” is a thriller that’s based on the true, but lesser known side story of the Iranian hostage crisis that began in 1979, when Islamic Iranians took over the American Embassy located in Iran and held 52 Americans hostage.
This movie will please young teens with all the suspense, but it may hit home to the older generation that lived through the actual time of the hostage crisis and had no knowledge of this being an American mission since it was kept under wraps by the government.
The actors chosen for this movie are all amazing.
You can feel the hostages’ pain and the anxiety just grips you as you root for them to make it through all the checkpoints they face in the movie.
When you sit there and watch the movie, the premise seems so ludicrous that it seems it would only be in a movie, however when you realize that it’s a true story, it brings into your mind a whole new perspective that blows your mind away that this actually happened.
The film is directed by Ben Affleck, and “Argo” seems to be undeniably his best work yet.
When the embassy is being taken over, six Americans escape through the back side of the building and are in hiding under the care of the Canadian ambassador, portrayed by actor Victor Garber.
Tony Mendez, portrayed by Affleck, is a C.I.A. technical operations officer who takes it upon himself to lead a seemingly suicidal mission to help the six Americans escape with the idea of producing a fake science fiction movie titled “Argo.”
Mendez’s idea has him acting as a Canadian director who is location scouting for his new movie, and the six Americans are his “crew.”
The mission is to pull off that they are a film crew, then eventually get to an airport to fly home.
There are some funny parts in the movie to give the audience small breaks from the suspense with comic relief given by John Chambers, portrayed by actor John Goodman, and Lester Siegel, portrayed by actor Alan Arkin.
Bryan Cranston gives a strong performance as Jack O’ Donnel, Mendez’s boss. You can see his side and what he is feeling when he has to go through the “higher-ups” on the job chain proposing the seemingly preposterous idea of making a fake movie to save six lives.
That alone is a reason to go and watch this movie.
There really aren’t any main action scenes with gunfire and car chases, but when the movie makes you feel nervous without people dying and explosions going off, it has succeeded.
This movie will leave you feeling a bit more patriotic, yet wondering what other stories are out there that the government is keeping secret from us.