Brilliant movie and an equally brilliant depiction of a post-revolution Iran

Rating: 5/10 (29 November 2012)

As an Iranian, I was cautious to watch Argo. Hollywood has a way of portraying Iranians in a way that pisses most of us off. From '24' to 'Don't Mess with the Zohan', Iranians are portrayed as America-hating Barbarians with untamed beards, and nothing is further from the truth. Iranians are relatively Normal people. They love America, and most of them look pretty normal. I was happy, ergo, that 'Argo' didn't live up to this stereotype. Instead, Argo takes a very non-biased approach to the matter. It doesn't glorify Iranians. It just tries to keep them out of the occasions. There are no Iranian antagonists, with a fake Arabic-sounding English accent and cunning ways, nor are there brave patriotic Americans who would do anything for their country. All it does it show Iran at a very chaotic time, and the only group of Iranians that are portrayed in the movie, are the fundamentalist Muslims who raided the U.S. Embassy in the late 70s, and that group is portrayed quite accurately. Any Iranian who takes offense in the way that "Iranians" are portrayed here, should understand that this movie isn't trying to make a generalization about the Iranian public, but is only showing a minority of angry bearded men and women in burkas, who do exist in the thousands and who did attack the U.S. Embassy.
While the events leading up to the movie are historically accurate, where the movie takes off with them is fictional. Without giving anything away, it revolves around 6 American workers of the American Embassy in Tehran, who fled the Embassy following the attacks and sought refuge at the house of the Canadian ambassador, and a joint operation between CIA and Canadian Authorities to extract them safely out of Iran. The story is pretty solid and the pace of the movie, specially the dialog is very fast. It is filmed mostly in the U.S., though it does briefly visit Istanbul as well. All the "Iran" bits were filmed in Hollywood, yet the locations were chosen wisely and it does look like Iran. The protests and the riots were also decently shot and the movie sure brings back bitter memories of those times for Iranians. The story unfolds Rapidly. It doesn't stray into unrelated sub-plots or feature, like almost every movie ever, a romance that has nothing to do with the story. The Final chapter of the movie is a hell of nail-biter and leaves you at the edge of your seat.
Ben Affleck, who directs and stars in the picture, has grown from a medium actor into a brilliant film-maker and actor, and 'Argo' is his best work yet. A Job Well done!