When Great Script and Great Editing Are Perfectly Combined

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2013)

Generally, there are three themes that tend to be favored by award community and film critics, the winning themes are about humanity ("Schindler's List" {1993}, "The Shawshank Redemption {1994}, "Slumdog Millionaire" {2008}, etc.), patriotism ("Saving Private Ryan" {1998}, "Black Hawk Down" {2001}, "Lincoln" {2012}, etc.) and the world of cinema itself ("Cinema Paradiso" {1998}, "Hugo" {2011}, "The Artist" {2011}, etc.). Well, thiz movie has all three of them. Producer, Director and Actor Ben Affleck is smart enough to realize it and takes advantage of that. Ben Affleck is Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who is responsible for covert operation to extract six American embassy employees out of the rage of Iran revolutionary by pretending to be Canadian film crew. It seems that Ben Affleck has done a tremendous job as the Director. He starts with an effective prologue to provide sufficient information and every time the scene heats up, particularly when the scene of American embassy is invaded, he cleverly adds relaxing piano instrumental music to cool things down and doesn't try to provoke audience into infuriated reactions. Thiz is his third feature films behind the camera after "Gone Baby Gone" (2007) and "The Town" (2010). For the acting, Ben Afflecks looks cool, calm and confident. John Goodman, Bryan Cranston and Victor Garber give brief but consistent performances and the last but definitely not least, Alan Arkin creates a powerful and believable emotion as fearless Hollywood Producer. I also have to put some credit to the Production Designer Sharon Seymour who successfully makes everything look like 1980s such as costume, hairstyle, glasses, car, furniture, television, telephone, everything! How they put attention to detail is undoubtedly amazing. Personally, for me, the power of thiz movie is in the last half hour. Thiz is a good example of what you can get when great script and great editing are perfectly combined. My heart nearly stopped while watching thiz final scene which takes place in Iran airport. They use almost all aspects to create tensions from ticket, telephone, soldier, bus, you name it and they have done it. When it's over, there will be some satisfying and gratifying feelings. In the closing scene, when the camera pans over the toys of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and other sci-fi movies one by one. It simply wants to remind us that they are not only inspirational icons in our pop culture, but also they have ever saved lives. Great movie, great story, great moviemaker!
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