Smart and enjoyable political thriller

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2013)

The Pentagon and C.I.A have been inextricably linked to Hollywood since the 1920's, offering their "advice" and influence on many productions. According to a spokesperson for the intelligence agency, Todd Ebitz, the C.I.A. even post story ideas on their website. Usually their collusion with the film industry is a propaganda tool to promote ideologies, or to glamorise, and mystify clandestine organisations. In Ben Affleck's Argo, a declassified (in 1997) narrative develops in a secret collaboration between wily Hollywood producers, and the Central Intelligence Agency, in an effort to rescue six diplomats from Iran, during the 1979 to 1981 hostage crisis. Whilst the story used in the film is a footnote to the eventual complexity and over-long nature of the whole event (which lasted for 444 days, with 54 American hostages in total), it could be argued that this "little moment", is more enticing as a narrative about organisations (whether political, ideological or mass media), and the power of western (specifically Hollywood) popular culture around the world.
In 1979 the pro-American Shah of Iran (Mahammed Reza Pahlevi) was forced to flee into exile after a series of increasingly violent protest against his regime, by Islamic fundamentalists. The US embassy in Tehran was targeted by the revolutionaries after Jimmy Carter saluted the exiled Shah in a toast, stating that Pahlevi was a friend of the nation. Argo opens as the embassy is stormed, paper documents are frantically shredded, computer files hammered into fragments. Six diplomats exit and find refuge in the Canadian Ambassador's home. C.I.A. agent, Tony Mendez (Affleck), determined to extricate the escapees, is enlightened with an idea to create a fake Hollywood science fiction film, create false identities for the six, and act as a film production, scouting for locations in Iran. Mendez's connection to Hollywood, is special effects veteran, John Chambers (John Goodman), who is most famous for designing the simian prosthetics for Planet of the Apes (1968). Along with ageing, and out of work, director, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), - who might or might not be Don Siegel, I'm not sure - they create a script and concept artwork for a "cheap science fiction Star Wars rip-off", with the title Argo (a reference to the ship in Greek mythology, sailed by Jason and his Argonauts).
I'm not a particular follower or fan of Affleck the actor, finding his abilities to be somewhat one-dimensional, but it is always an intriguing prospect when an actor makes the move to directing. This is my first experience of this with Affleck, having never seen Gone Baby Gone (2007) or The Town (2010), but I have heard encouraging things about his previous films, so I was looking forward to watching how he worked with other actors. Whilst not a great actor himself, he understands the acting process, and casts brilliantly, particularly the very undervalued Bryan Cranston. Chris Terrio's dialogue is sharp, effective and referential (with many nods to contemporary sci-fi, to salivate the generation that Affleck is a part of). Science fiction aside, Argo is a project that understandably fell into the hands of an actor/director (even George Clooney co-produces with Affleck), much of the mid-section of the film is about the acting process, the six escapees having to become the fictionalised characters that might get them back to America. When it's a life and death proposition, this process seems excruciatingly hard. To fully portray these people, they have to become every aspect of that person.
Throughout the film, systems of hierarchy and levels of bureaucracy are eluded to, from the offices of the C.I.A., through the dealings with Hollywood, to the levels of security and multitude of check points found when attempting to leave a fragile, destabilised country. The latter of these systems is used to great effect towards the end of the film, where the Mendez-led "film crew" pass through increasingly excruciating encounters with Iranian security at an airport. Argo juxtaposes the machinations of the openly narcissistic Hollywood industry, with the more secretively narcissistic C.I.A., whilst they are inextricably linked to the heightened processes of government, these intelligence agents almost appear comical at times, unstable, with a tendency towards incompetence. The audacity of Mendez to assume he could pull off a legitimate looking fake film, shows this innate narcissism, and Chambers even relates the concept when asking him, "So you want to come to Hollywood and act like a big shot, without actually doing anything?" When told yes, he says "You'll fit right in."
Of course Afflect's character is morally stable, but an ineffectual sub- plot involving an estranged wife and son, is like an unnecessary, staid, use of cheap emotional manipulation. Towards the end it becomes uncomfortably saccharine, the image, music and text utilising generic, over indulgent climactic rubbish, using the common signifiers of the worst kind of Hollywood drivel. However, this is a very small indiscretion in a smart and enjoyable political thriller. Frightening Argo also highlights the fact that the west's relationship with the middle-east has changed very little, with heightened hatred of the west from Islamic fundamentalists, and the nature of terrorism having not altered significantly with the current hostage crisis in Mali.
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