Argo (2012) Review

ARGO (2012)
Director: Ben Affleck

Writer: Chris Terrio

Producers: Ben Affleck, Chris Brigham, Chay Carter, George Clooney, Tim Headington, Graham King, David Klawans, and Nina Wolarsky

Editor: William Goldenberg

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Tate Donavan, Victor Garber, Clea DuVull, and Christopher Denham

Runtime: 2 hours

Rating: R (language, some violent images)

Genre: Biopic, Drama, Thriller

Release Date: October 12, 2012

Before Watching the Movie: You may want to briefly read up on the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis beforehand, but it isn't necessary, as they explain a lot of it in the movie.

Intro: This is a movie I have wanted to see ever since I heard about it. I think I heard about it when I saw the trailer for either Prometheus, Ted, or The Dark Knight Rises. The trailer piqued my interest, and later I saw Ben Affleck on The Daily Show, which wanted to make me see it even more. Finally, when it came out in theaters, I heard the rave reviews it got, and that was the clincher for me. Finally, after waiting almost a month (my schedule has been crazy), I saw it last night, and I was not at all disappointed. Argo is a fantastic movie all around and is especially strong in directing and acting, as it is thrilling to the end and very accurately captures the mission and the time period.

Plot: In early 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, angry Iranians and supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and capture all but 6 Americans and take them hostage. Six manage to escape out the back entrance and find refuge in the Canadian Embassy. They have no way of leaving at risk of being taken hostage and/or being publicly executed by the revolting Iranians. Back in America, the CIA is frantically thinking of ways to sneak the six out, and they call up on Tony Mendez (Affleck) and after much thinking, Tony comes up with a crazy idea to get them all out in which he would set up a fake movie production for a science fiction movie called "Argo" and then pretend to do location scouting in Iran along with his Canadian film crew, who the six trapped ambassadors have to pose as. The plan is approved since they have no better ideas and the operation is on as Tony enlists the help of a couple real Hollywood people (Arkin, Goodman). Tony must gain the ambassadors' trusts while trying to get them safely out of Iran as the government painstakingly reconstructs the shredded identifications of the missing ambassadors in hopes of capturing and killing them.

Things people may find “objectionable”: The first half of the movie has much more swearing and violence than the second, so even though there is swearing and violence, it mostly occurs in the first half. The violence stems from the shots of the Iranian revolution and the protesting, and again almost all of it is contained in the first half of the movie. There is also a lot of swearing, so if you see the movie, be prepared for that if you are uncomfortable with it.

Ratings:

     -Directing/Cinematography: 10/10. Affleck does a fantastic job with the direction. A couple things in particular caught my eye. At the end of the movie, they show pictures of the actual people involved in the operation side-by-side with shots from the movie, and it's stunning how accurate everything looked compared to how they looked in real life. The movie was also full of interesting shots and visuals. The one that stuck out to me the most was when Tony is waiting in the Iranian building in Turkey and he looks to the side and a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini was staring down at him, as if Ayatollah were watching him. While this was far from the only great shot in the movie, this is the one that stuck out to me the most.

     -Acting: 10/10. Everyone did a great job in acting. The whole cast did a great job, though my favorite performances were from Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman. Goodman and Arkin are hilarious as the two actual Hollywood people, and Affleck does a great job all around, with directing and acting.

     -Writing: 9.5/10.

          -Story: 10/10. Well, like they say, the truth is stranger than fiction, and the story is both truthful and extremely interesting.

This was the fake poster used for Argo in real life.

          -Script: 9/10. Really a great script. The lines were good and it was able to mix grave drama with witty comedy. There didn't seem to be any cheesy lines, and all the lines they had worked well with the movie.

     -Special Effects: n/a. Special effects were really not used that much in the movie. In fact, I'm not sure if they're used at all really, since there's no blood and guns are used only in two scenes. Still, the movie works extremely well without them.

     -Music/Score: 8/10. The score was very good and it added to the tension of the movie at points. While it doesn't always stand out, it definitely adds an element of tension to the movie.

     -Power/Emotion: 7/10. The movie does a pretty good job at making the audience care for the characters at least to the point where you don't want to see any of them die. You also feel especially for those from the embassy as they have to step out in public and trust a total stranger in Tony when they know they are public enemies to the Iranians.

     -Adrenaline: 10/10. The movie is very tense all the way through, as it starts off with the US Embassy being stormed. There is not a lot of action or chase scenes, but there is constant tension throughout. It will definitely have you on the edge of your seat by the end, knowing how slim the chances are of the mission succeeding and how perfectly everything needs to go in order to work and in order for all the characters not to die at the hands of the revolutionary Iranians.

     -Intelligence: 6/10. This is now the new name for the "mind-bendingness" section, as I think intelligence is a better word to describe the original intent of this section, which was to rate how much the movie makes you think and/or engages you mentally. In other words, a superficial movie like Transformers would rank low, while something mind-bending and intellectual like Inception would rank high. While the movie is smartly written and directed, it doesn't make you think as much as some movies do. The big thing that makes you think is the display of how much the U.S. is hated in this movie and the kind of things we did to Iran before Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. Still, this does not take away from the movie at all.

     -Humor: 6/10. The movie nicely blended humor and drama. There were some really funny moments and lines in the movie, especially coming from John Goodman and Alan Arkin's characters. The writer did a great job of working in good humor with such a serious story. Kudos to him.

     -Best Credit: Dorianne Pahlavan as "Airport Hysterical Wife."

     -Final Score:  Argo is one of the best movies I have seen in theaters this year. It is good all across the board and Ben Affleck is great both behind and in front of the camera. It's most likely going to take home some awards at the Oscars in February. If you can stand swearing, you should see this movie. I think it would be very hard to be disappointed.

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