Gripping historical drama

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2012)

If you enjoy gripping historical dramas, you'll enjoy this film. This movie is intelligent and edge-of-your-seat riveting.
It tells the story of the "Canadian Caper", the joint covert rescue by Canada and the CIA of six American diplomats who evaded capture during the Islamist seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, in November 1979. Most of the other hostages had to endure 444 days of captivity, but three months into this ordeal America was delighted when it was discovered that six had managed to hide in the Canadian embassy and to make their way out of the country.
Yes, there are a few liberties, changes, omissions and embellishments in the movie, but this was mostly for dramatic purposes, and the result is a movie that manages to combine historical accuracy with drama. Only once did the drama lapse into unrealistic melodrama: the take-off scene. It's clear that the director went to great lengths to try to replicate things as realistically as possible. It was a messy complicated event, so some details had to be smoothed over.
For an American movie with a political theme, I found it to be relatively neutral, balanced and not overtly anti-Iranian; however, you may wish to pass if you're an Islamist or an Iranian nationalist. Some of the police/immigration scenes reminded me of Midnight Express. We all know that Iran is a great country that has only temporarily lost its way.
I also am quite certain that if this movie had been made by Canadians, it would have shown more of the pivotal roles played by Ken Taylor and the other Canadians who risked their lives. Perhaps we'll see a movie some day about Ken Taylor's spectacular evacuation of 850 Canadians from Tehran in January 1979. (But would Americans go see it...?)
This is surely the movie that will confirm in everyone's mind that Ben Affleck is not only an accomplished actor, but also a good and perhaps even great director. Perhaps we already knew that from "The Town".
I would rate this movie as 8.5, but this is a movie for which the score deserves to be rounded up.