Argo

I was not prepared for Argo. Either it's because I kept getting texts that morning waking me up (I had to be constantly updated on whether or not we had tickets I guess) or maybe I'm just coming down with something, but I had a nice headache by the end of the movie. Or else the movie is JUST that tense.

There's essentially two parts to the story- the assemblage of the Argo movie cover story, and then the enactment of the plan.

(assemblage? enactment? are either of those even real words? Too lazy to check right now. Re-enactment is at least seen on "America's Most Wanted" so OBVIOUSLY that's legit)

Putting the movie together was the most fun. Tony Mendez, the CIA guy that came up with the plan, is basically just dragged along while his Hollywood contacts make it happen. It's fun to see his outsiders perspective on the showbusiness involved. Not that Mendez ever stands up and says, "this is crazy, you guys are crazy!" as that would be cliche for one, and two he was the only guy that had any faith at all in, as the movie puts it, "the best bad idea we've got".

When finally putting the plan into action to get those six americans out of Iran, yes, it's a nail biter, arm rest wrenching, edge of your seat affair, but I think to an exhausting degree. They either make it or they don't. Unfortunately, in my ignorance, I hadn't had this real life story spoiled for me. So I didn't know! The movie kept going long after they made it out, and I kept expecting some dude to pop out of the bushes, yell "this is for the Ayatollah!" and then have whomever it was get tragically killed in the last scene.

Nope, despite the dramatic phone calls, paper swishing effects, and what was portrayed as a very close call at the airport, they all made it out in a pretty straightforward manner. I did like how the one guy who was set up to not really believe in the plan was the guy at the airport to describe the movie to the guards there, making it sound convincing. His nerdiness, plus the sound effects he used, made him sound like C-3PO from Return of the Jedi when he was telling the ewoks the story of Star Wars. And I'm positive that allusion was made on purpose- this story would never have happened without Star Wars and its like. The end of the movie, the part where there's text telling us about what happened to everyone after the events shown (like this is Animal House or something!... okay, I've never seen Animal House, but I'm like 90% sure they do that there...), the text is shown beside a bunch of action figures, the lions share of which are from Star Wars.

I'm glad the movie gave us the information that, during this Iranian hostage crisis, the Iranians wanted the return of their Shah for trial. Or maybe "trial". But whatever. I hadn't known (though I could've guess at this point in my life) that the 'mericans had gone in, messed things up, and installed a corrupt Shah to rule over the Iranian people, someone who'd keep the oil gears turning for the world, while exploiting and ruining his country. As much as I get angry at the extremism, and as much as I want those americans to get out of dodge, the Iranian people were driven to this.

But who's to blame? A government from 30 years before? Certainly not the diplomats being used as bargaining chips or bloody spectacles. Most of them, when their ages were given, were specifically under 30.

Ah, but despite the fact that we were given this information, the movie still plays me like a fiddle, and is an example of America saying it's awesome. It could have gone harder on the self recrimination.