Argo

We'd decided to end our season once the clocks went forward, as the lighter evenings meant that people were less likely to turn up to see a film, even one so carefully chosen as those we try to screen.  However we'd had so many requests to screen Argo and had already booked the Village Hall for last Thursday, so we went ahead with our screening. 

There was a slow trickle of people to start with, but we needed with one of our biggest audiences of the season - and we were all rewarded with an excellent film: we know in advance what the outcome would be, but the film was real edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Here are my notes:

Argo

USA 2012                    120 minutes

Director:                      Ben Affleck

Starring:                        Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Christopher Denham, John Goodman, Tate Donovan and Victor Garber

Nominations and Awards

• Won three Oscars (Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing) and nominations for four Oscars
• Won three BAFTAs (Best Film, Best Director and Best Editing) and nominations for four BAFTAs (Best Actor (Ben Affleck), Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin), Adapted Screenplay and Best Music)
• A further 54 wins and 53 nominations

“The craft in this film is rare.  It is so easy to manufacture a thriller from chases and gunfire, and so very hard to fine-tune it out of exquisite timing and a plot that’s so clear to us we wonder why it isn’t obvious to the Iranians.  After all, who in their right mind would believe a space opera was being filmed in Iran during the hostage crisis?  Just about everyone, it turns out.  Hooray for Hollywood.”

 

Roger Ebert

In 1979 six American officials managed to escape from the US embassy just as it was being overrun by a pro-Ayatollah mob that held the remaining personnel hostage.  The six escapers hid in the Canadian embassy from where they were exfiltrated by Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), an unorthodox CIA agent, who claimed to be a Canadian movie producer scouting locations for a sci-fi film called Argo.

 

The film is based on The Master of Disguise by Tony Mendez and magazine article by Joshuah Berman called The Great Escape in which Mendez exposed this startling piece of declassified secret history to the world.  There is no official corroboration to the story, but it is so incredible that it somehow compels belief. 

Ben Affleck first came to attention as an actor in Kevin Smith’s films such as Mallrats (1995) and Chasing Amy (1997).  As a writer he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting (1997) which he co-wrote and starred in with Matt Damon.  Subsequently he starred in a series of films including Armageddon (1998) and Pearl Harbor (2001) which were box office successes despite receiving negative critical reaction.  Subsequent films including Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004) were critically panned box office flops and in 2007 Affleck turned to directing, with Argo being his third film as director.  All of his films have been thrillers, with Gone Baby Gone (2007), involving a conspiracy of honourable public servants, and The Town (2010) depicting a heist by likable boson crooks, with Affleck co-wring the screenplays for both films.    

On its release Argo received widespread acclamation from US critics, with Roger Ebert choosing it as his film of the year. The film received seven Oscar nominations, although to the surprise of many Ben Affleck did not receive a nomination as Best Director.  Entertainment Weekly commented on this controversy as follows:

Standing in the Golden Globe pressroom with his directing trophy, Affleck acknowledged that it was frustrating not to get an Oscar nod when many felt he deserved one.  But he's keeping a sense of humor.  "I mean, I also didn't get the acting nomination," he pointed out.  "And no one's saying I got snubbed there!"

Here's the trailer: