4 stars out of 5
It had been a long time since I’d heard the name Bani Sadr. I was only 10 years old when the Iran Hostage Crisis began. But it was big, big news and we all followed the developments, the names, the ever-increasing day count. The Shah. Ayatollah Khomeini. Ted Koppel. Novelty hit “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran” by Vince Vance and the Valiants. Failed rescue attempt. Canada did something good. And on the day of Reagan’s inauguration, the hostages were finally set free.
Wait, what was that thing with Canada?
Here, Ben Affleck focuses on the long-hidden truth of that Canada mission: That the CIA devised the cover story of a big science fiction movie to sneak out six “Canadian filmmakers.” With storyboards by Jack Kirby. Wow, 10-year-old me would’ve loved that!
Now, I’d heard that Affleck played a little fast-and-loose with some of the facts, so after seeing Argo, I looked that stuff up. OK, OK, he invented some dramatic action. He streamlined some events and created a character or two. It’s Hollywood, after all. But the fact remains, the wildest thing here—that the U.S. government (project) “green-lighted” a made-up sci-film to rescue hostages—is completely true. And that makes this a very, very compelling story.
The movie immediately states that the U.S.-backed Shah was not a good dude. If this was common knowledge in 1979, 5th-grade me knew nothing about it. But beyond that, this is very much we-good, they-bad. Affleck does a good job at capturing the high sense of threat in Tehran. Scenes of little kids piecing together shredded documents are positively chilling. This is a tense movie, and would’ve been even without the added fiction.
The cast is solid, from the generally unknown hidden hostages, to John Goodman and Alan Arkin and the Malcolm in the Middle/Breaking Bad guy in larger roles, to familiar actors in smaller roles: Kyle Chandler, Zeljko Ivanek, Chris “I’m in every movie and TV show this year” Messina, Bob Gunton who was Ethan Kanin on 24 but still looks like the Pathmark commercials guy, Seymour Cassel, and Richard Kind. And a pleasure to see Adrienne Barbeau—it’s been quite a while since Swamp Thing.
So, congrats to Ben Affleck on a very entertaining movie that sheds light on one of history’s cool subplots. Though I guess even a documentary would’ve been pretty riveting.
I really want to see that one. I remember it all so well from my childhood too – the day counts, Bomb Bomb Bomb song…and don’t forget the bumper stickers! Ayatollah, ass-a-hola. Always appealing to an 8 year old stuck in the back seat.