{"id":22422,"date":"2012-11-10T21:47:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-11T05:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=22422"},"modified":"2012-11-11T07:27:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-11T15:27:07","slug":"argo-ben-affleck-2012-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=22422","title":{"rendered":"Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 Argo<\/a><\/em> is the title of a real but undeveloped,\u00a0science-fiction fantasy screenplay, chosen by\u00a0CIA op\u00a0Tony Mendez\u00a0 (Ben Affleck), as a ruse to attempt a rescue of six American Embassy personnel, in harm’s way\u00a0from the Iranian government\u00a0in 1980.<\/p>\n

Amid angry shouts and violent protesting, a\u00a0surge of hostile combatants overtake the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, as personnel inside\u00a0scramble to burn and\u00a0shred important documents viable to our national security.\u00a0 One by one, employees are overcome and taken hostage by the angry insurgents, while six individuals manage to slip away unnoticed, and take refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).<\/p>\n

Once the State Department is briefed on the situation, the challenge arises of how to safely exfiltrate these six without endangering their lives, or that of the Canadian Ambassador.\u00a0 Working on\u00a0someone’s brilliant\u00a0idea of sneaking in six bicycles and a map to the border, agent Mendez comes up with\u00a0an alternate\u00a0plan to\u00a0pose as a Canadian film crew, out scouting possible locations, similar to the genre locations\u00a0of Star Wars.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>With a thumbs up, Mendez proceeds by\u00a0connecting in Hollywood with\u00a0make-up artist\u00a0John Chambers (John Goodman), a previous contact,\u00a0 and film producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), who succeed in acquiring the rights to the screenplay, as well as setting up an office for the faux film production company.<\/p>\n

Obtaining six\u00a0fake Canadian passports as well as one for\u00a0himself, is only one of the many obstacles Mendez must overcome, as he finally meets up\u00a0and trains\u00a0his “film crew” and becomes personally involved, only to have Washington pull the plug at the final hour.<\/p>\n

Argo<\/em> is edge-of-your-seat entertaining, and there are moments when you are literally holding your breath and biting your lip.\u00a0 With brutal cross-cut editing, the viewer is forced into panic mode as the scene jumps from\u00a0angry mobs\u00a0to\u00a0fearful embassy workers, scrambling to secure documents, and\u00a0again from tormented and\u00a0blind-folded hostages to the anxious six, bracing themselves for the worse possible scenario.<\/p>\n

The film is an ensemble cast, with no single stand-out performance, although Goodman and Arkin are both strong and a bit of a humorous relief.\u00a0 There are a few lagging moments between Mendez and his young son, that\u00a0causes one\u00a0to question Affleck’s choice, however it does work later to humanize Mendez, so overall the film is great, and much deserving of an Oscar nod in directing and editing.<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA. \u00a0 Argo is the title of a real but undeveloped,\u00a0science-fiction fantasy screenplay, chosen by\u00a0CIA op\u00a0Tony Mendez\u00a0 (Ben Affleck), as a ruse to attempt a rescue of six American Embassy personnel, in harm’s way\u00a0from the Iranian government\u00a0in 1980. Amid angry shouts and violent protesting, a\u00a0surge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}