Excellent political thriller

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2013)

Ben Affleck is developing a decent track record for himself as a director. Gone Baby Gone, The Town and now Argo are all very entertaining. More than just pretty face then! Argo is based on the true story of six American Embassy employees who escaped when the Embassy in Tehran was attacked in 1979 by protesters against the US giving the Shah sanctuary following his fall from power. They find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador and the US authorities have to find a way to get them out of Iran before the local authorities realise they are there.
Be warned though, from comments on the movie it seems clear the movie is a highly dramatized and not very accurate portrayal of what happened.
Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a CIA agent specialising in these operations. He has contacts in Hollywood and comes up with the idea of setting up a fake movie to arrange a trip to Tehran to scout locations and bringing the escapees home on the way back as part of the crew.
The movie is good in showing us the tension felt by the escapees in Tehran and by Mendez in the US as he tries to make his scheme workable.
The tension builds as Mendez goes to Tehran and tells the plan to the trapped Americans. Some of them are understandably sceptical. However they have little choice but to go along with it and the final Tehran airport sequence is well done, though perhaps more than a little far fetched.
In fairness to the makers at the start of the movie some time is given to explain the historical background to the unpopularity of the US in post revolution Iran.
Definitely a political thriller I'd recommend, though maybe not for factual accuracy.