A Compelling Fictional Re-Telling of A Unique Real World Event

Rating: 10/10 (17 January 2019)

14 October 2012. The striking association between dramatization and reality comes at the beginning of the ending credits when side by side photographs of the real people and their actor counter-parts are shown along with a special message from one of the most important people of the time. What's fascinating about this ensemble effort is its lack of a standout character performance and instead the movie folds in the events and characters into one of the strongest dramatic scripts in recent memory. The editing, timing and recreation of the heightened dramatic elements (likely to have been exaggerated for theatrical audience impact) are tight and emotional riveting even as the real outcome is factually known.
What sets this movie apart from most is its careful and deliberate coverage of the aftermath of the events that helps to provide in totality a beginning and a ending of this Iran hostage saga. Another element of this movie is the individual heroics, the raw and graphic language which seem to be unforced and in under Affleck's direction pertinent and incisively appropriate. Comparisons to this movie are hard to come by, The Good Shepard (2006) with Matt Damon that is more drama than action, W (2008) about Oliver Stone's President Bush's dramatization or The King of Scotland (2006) a singular focus on Uganda's Ida Amin, The Queen (2006) again a contemporary focus on central characters surround the Queen of Britain, Fail Safe (1964) about a fictionalized drama about a B-52 bomber and a nuclear weapon's accident, Black Hawk Down (2001) and The Great Escape (1963) that focus on the physical events of war, The King's Speech (2010) which is primarily personality and relationship focused, United 93 (2006) a much more narrow and compressed time-limited event, Breach (2007) more of an intimate personal character performance involving espionage.
Perhaps the movies that come closest in style and portrayal might be event movies of Traffic (2001) or Bobby (2006) but their multiple story lines, Jar Head (2005) with its more expansive, visceral view of pre-Desert Storm, Munich (2005) about the murder of Olympic athletes and even so comes across more like an raw action dramatic thriller, Body of Lies (2008) a fictionalized hunt of a Middle Eastern terrorist, or perhaps the closest resemblance with All The President's Men (1976). But even so it is the very nature of the real unusual unfolding plot benchmarks that makes this movie so difficult to compare, the personal emotive human connections and conflicts and their observed stories make this production a unique creation in and of itself. A well dramatized script and direction and real life event are what made this movie resonate with its gripping power that allows the cliques and stereotypical resemblances to vanish into the background, leaving only the storytelling elements for the audience to enjoy in rapture.