Argo [DVD] [2013] -

!--[if gte mso 9]xml w:WordDocument w:ViewNormal/w:View w:Zoom0/w:Zoom w:TrackMoves / w:TrackFormatting / w:PunctuationKerning / w:ValidateAgainstSchemas / w:SaveIfXMLInvalidfalse/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid w:IgnoreMixedContentfalse/w:IgnoreMixedContent w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderTextfalse/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText w:DoNotPromoteQF / w:LidThemeOtherEN-US/w:LidThemeOther w:LidThemeAsianX-NONE/w:LidThemeAsian w:LidThemeComplexScriptX-NONE/w:LidThemeComplexScript w:Compatibility w:BreakWrappedTables / w:SnapToGridInCell / w:WrapTextWithPunct / w:UseAsianBreakRules / w:DontGrowAutofit / w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark / w:EnableOpenTypeKerning / w:DontFlipMirrorIndents / w:OverrideTableStyleHps / /w:Compatibility w:BrowserLevelMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/w:BrowserLevel m:mathPr m:mathFont m:val='Cambria Math' / m:brkBin m:val='before' / m:brkBinSub m:val='--' / m:smallFrac m:val='off' / m:dispDef / m:lMargin m:val='0' / m:rMargin m:val='0' / m:defJc m:val='centerGroup' / m:wrapIndent m:val='1440' / m:intLim m:val='subSup' / m:naryLim m:val='undOvr' / /m:mathPr/w:WordDocument /xml![endif]-- p class='MsoNormal'Set against the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 and 1980 Ben Affleck?s Argo is a nerve-jangling footnote to the birth of Ayatollah Khomeini?s Islamic Republic. The movie opens at the crest of the 1979 revolution--the storming of the US embassy in Tehran and the escape of six diplomats to the precarious safety of the Canadian ambassador?s residence. To the rescue is Tony Mendez--a composed CIA agent whose heroism remained classified until 1997--and his state-approved plan to get the stranded embassy staff out of Iran under a brazen cover story: they?re an innocent film crew on a location hunt for the fake sci-fi blockbuster Argo. Hollywood is usually pressed into the service of the state in the name of comedy (either burying dictators in Team America: World Police or just bad news in Barry Levinson?s Wag the Dog ) but Argo is a true story and the tone of Affleck's Oscar-winning script is carefully split switching between mounting tension in consular Tehran and a satire of the Hollywood machine as fronted by Alan Arkin and John Goodman--two raffish producers hired by Mendez to reverse-engineer some convincing buzz for the Argo movie. Affleck himself takes the role of Mendez the steady-eyed agent betting everything on Hollywood?s age-old efficiency at creating a media circus for a project long before it exists. ?History starts out as farce and ends up a tragedy? remarks Goodman but Argo ends on a patriotic upbeat and doesn?t reflect much on history. It politely nods at the context of Iran?s attitude to the West and we?re told about but not shown--bar the blank rage of the revolutionary mob--Iran?s anger at the Westerly flow of resources under Shah Pahlavi. Instead Argo concentrates on the eggshell complexities of deception in plain sight including a climactic set-piece in which Mendez? team must fend their way through layers of suspicious Iranian airport security--with imminent capture execution and political calamity only on the other side of their paper-thin pretext. It may have the ring of historical escapism but Argo holds its nerve as a great Hollywood escape. --Leo Batchelor br / !--[if gte mso 9]xml w:LatentStyles DefLockedState='false' DefUnhideWhenUsed='true' DefSemiHidden='true' DefQFormat='false' DefPriority='99' LatentStyleCount='267' w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='0' SemiHidden='false' UnhideWhenUsed='false' QFormat='true' Name='Normal' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' SemiHidden='false' UnhideWhenUsed='false' QFormat='true' Name='heading 1' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 2' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 3' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 4' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 5' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 6' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 7' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 8' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='9' QFormat='true' Name='heading 9' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 1' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 2' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 3' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 4' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 5' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 6' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 7' / w:LsdException Locked='false' Priority='39' Name='toc 8' / w:LsdExcept...