Argo

UK Release Date. 7 November 2012
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 
Director. Ben Affleck
Cast. Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, Kyle Chandler, Bryan Cranston, Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, John Goodman.
Rating. 76%

Review.

There are two pillars to most political thrillers - patriotism and historical accuracy. Most routinely side with one over the other. This is true of Ben Affleck's third directorial feature, Argo, which is light on patriotic tub-thumping instead, favouring a more historically accurate portrayal of the 1979 siege of the American Embassy in Iran. When six members of staff escape from the embassy and take refuge in the home of the Canadian Ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), the US administration must figure out a means of extraction. The 'best bad idea', devised by CIA agent, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is to set up a fake film production company and smuggle the embassy staff out under the guise of being a Canadian production crew scouting locations for the next science-fiction blockbuster. Star Wars was released two years prior and spawned a myriad of B-rated imitations such as Starcrash, Message From Space and Star Odyssey.

Argo is astonishingly rich in period detail. From the opening, old-school Warner Brothers logo to the closing montage of photographs of the real hostages, there’s a commitment to authenticity. Indeed, Affleck has managed to recreate the look and feel of a film from the period, modelling his style on the stark, old-school political thrillers of Alan J. Pakula, Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack. The likes of Klute and All The President's Men, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon and The Yakuza and Three Days Of The Condor. 

Affleck demonstrates a deft handling of pace and tone, especially in making the difficult transitions between complicated set pieces in Tehran, Washington and Hollywood, to create a seamless blend of drama and suspense. Formidable writing by Chris Terrio (although Tony Mendez and Joshuah Bearman are also afforded writing credits) produces a script that is both entertaining and insightful, contrasting US and Iranian reactions to the incident. 

Affleck has assembled an impressive cast of seasoned character actors to add weight to Argo. The likes of Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler and Zeljko Ivanek revel in supporting roles in Washington's corridors of power, whereas John Goodman, Richard Kind and Alan Arkin represent the Hollywood side of the equation. There's not enough attention paid to character development; Tony Mendez, in particular, never comes into sharp focus - but that was true of Pakula, Lumet and Pollak films too. Nevertheless, a delightfully irascible Alan Arkin delivers a wonderful character in producer Lester Siegel, "If I'm doing a fake movie, it's gonna be a fake hit."

Argo won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year in 2013. But ironically the film's greatest strength arguably becomes its greatest flaw. Argo is not really about anything other than itself. The film merely exists as a document of events, flatly refusing to infuse its narrative with any deeper meaning.