Unfortunately the twisting of the truth drags this movie down quite a lot.

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2014)

I guess my problem with this film was that the writers were a little bit too lose with the truth, and it is another example of Hollywood rewriting the past to place a greater emphasis upon the role of the United States in a certain historical event, and to lower to the impact of other nations that were involved. Sometimes I wonder whether the United States would write themselves into history to the extent that it was through their efforts that the Roman Empire collapsed. Then again, this is coming from a country that actually has a debate as to whether Jesus Christ spoke English.
The movie is based around the events of the Iranian revolution in 1979 and 1980 and deals with the American hostages that were being held in the country during the fighting and it looked at one specific plan that involved operatives going into Iran as a part of a filming crew in an attempt to free the hostages. The operation was a resounding success, and the six hostages were brought home safely. However, as can be expected, if the movie followed the actual events then it would be a pretty boring movie. As it turned out, the hostages left Tehran at around 5:00 am in the morning and had not problems passing through immigration.
What upset people about this movie though was how they made the CIA front and centre and not only shoved the Canadian role to the side (and in reality it was the opposite, with the CIA only playing a minor role in the rescue) but actually suggested that two of America's staunchest allies (Great Britain and New Zealand) wanted nothing to do with the hostages. Further, the fact that this film won three Academy Awards, including best picture, only acts to cement this version of history into the social conscience (at least in America, were people tend not to question what comes out of Hollywood) and push the truth to the outer edge.
Okay, I liked this film, but as with most films based on real events, I am going to want to actually find out the truth behind the propaganda. Fortunately IMDb does a good job of bringing these truths to life, and the fact that the reviewers are people like you and I, who are not paid to write reviews, and simply put their own thoughts onto paper without any bias whatsoever, does act to level the playing field. Further, with the community reviews of IMDb, I am more inclined to go by what people say here than the paid reviewers that tend to flood the pages of our newspapers (which, by the way, are dying out in droves these days with the rise of the internet).