Argo -- October 2012

A PREPOSTEROUS IDEA, BUT IT WORKED

Moe: Hey Joe, I've got a movie question for you.

Joe: OK, shoot.

Moe: It's about Argo. I know the Academy Awards are coming up, and I want to see at least one or two of the pix that are nominated. Have you seen it?

Joe: Sure have. Surprised you haven't, since you like movies like this. I'd say go and see it. It's really good.

Moe: OK. Give me some details. Isn't it about the hostages in Iran back in the 80s?

Joe: Yeah, it is. Actually,1979 and 1980. The gist of it is that when the Iranian protestors overpowered the guards at the U. S. Embassy in Tehran in '79, they captured most of the embassy workers and put them in prison. What they didn't know was that six of the embassy employees escaped out a side door and quickly made their way to the Canadian Embassy. The Canadian ambassador to Iran hid them in his own house for several months, and it was a pretty tense situation, let me tell you. Eventually they had to get them out of Iran. The movie is mainly about how they did it.

Moe: So tell me more.

Joe: Well, the main character is a CIA "extract" specialist named Tony Mendez – I guess that means his job is to "extract" Americans out of difficult situations and get them back to the U.S. He concocts an outlandish plan to do this, and he realizes it's probably a cockamamie idea, but it's the only real chance.

Moe: What's the plan?

Joe: He creates a fictitious movie script partly based on Persian legendary characters. The idea is that he has a movie crew who are supposedly in Iran to make an action-adventure film of the script. The film will be named Argo. Of course the refugees hiding in the Canadian ambassador's house are going to pretend to be the members of the crew. Mendez enlists the help of an Oscar-winning makeup artist named John Chambers and a well-known producer named Leslie Siegel to give the whole idea credibility. The big task is to carry this charade on for a couple of days and then get the refugees to the airport before the Iranian authorities figure out what's going on.

Moe: So how does it turn out? This is just a story, isn't it?

Joe: No, it's not just a story. This really happened – maybe not in exactly the way the movie shows it, but it's basically true. So we know that this preposterous idea really worked; the refugees got out – in the nick of time, the way it happens in the movie.

Moe: Well, if we know the outcome, doesn't that make the story less exciting?

Joe: No, it doesn't. If anything, it makes it more exciting, even though I can't explain why, exactly. Tony Mendez knows that if he fouls up, he'll probably be a dead duck, and so will the refugees he's trying to rescue. It's pretty tense all the way through, let me tell you.

Moe: Is there anything Christian about the movie? Or any good values?

Joe: Well, yes. We see Tony praying at one point. And there's a whole kind of subplot about Tony and his wife; at the beginning of the movie they seem to be on the outs – they're supposedly taking a break from each other. But Tony loves his son and keeps in close contact with him by phone and Internet. And when the whole thing is over with, Tony and his wife get back together. But the most important thing about the whole story is the risk that Tony takes to pull this off. It's for a great cause – saving six lives. But it's also a risk for the six Americans hiding out in the ambassador's house; they have no choice but to trust Tony Mendez with their lives -- and they do. Tony and the Canadian ambassador and several others who help out are heroes.

Moe: Anything objectionable in it? Can I take my kids?

Joe: I'd be really careful about that, but I don't think I would. The movie is rated R, partly for violence but probably mainly for language. There's an incredible amount of foul language and profanity. The f-word and s-word are used so much it almost seems like there's some sort of requirement for those words to be in every sentence. And it was completely unnecessary – the filmmakers didn't have to do that.

Moe: Anything else you can tell me?

Joe: Yeah – the acting is great. Ben Affleck plays the main role of Tony Mendez, and he does a terrific job. John Goodman and Alan Alda play the roles of the makeup artist and the Hollywood producer, and they're really good too. And Ben Affleck directed the movie. Most of the other actors are relatively unknown, but they do well.

Moe: What kind of rating would you give it?

Joe: Well, I think I'd give it 3 ½ stars. It's one of the best movies of the year if you can ignore the foul language.

Moe: Thanks. Maybe just my wife and I will go.

Joe: Good idea.