. Argo

Argo is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Ben Affleck, based loosely on the historical account by Tony Mendez, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative, of the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman, and was released in North America to critical and commercial success on October 12, 2012. The film was co-produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). The story of this rescue was also told in the 1981television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson. Militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 in retaliation for sheltering the recently deposed Shah. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six escaped and hide in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). With the escapees' situation kept secret, the US State Department begins to explore options for "exfiltrating" them from Iran. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA specialist brought in for consultation, criticizes the proposals. He too is at a loss for an alternative until inspired at home by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes on TV with his son: he plans to create a cover story that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, scouting "exotic" locations in Iran for a similar sci-fi film.Mendez and his supervisor Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) contact John Chambers (John Goodman), a Hollywood make-up artist who has previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts them in touch with the film producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin). Together they set up a phony film studio, publicize their plans, and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy" in the style of Star Wars, to lend credibility to the cover story. Meanwhile, the escapees grow frantic inside the ambassador's residence. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy papers shredded before the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped.Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran and links up with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to get through security at the airport. Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along with it, knowing that Mendez is risking his own life too, and convinced that it is their only option. A "scouting" visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, but Mendez gets them away from the hostile crowd.Mendez is told that the operation has been cancelled, to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing O'Donnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission to get tickets on a Swiss Air flight. Tension rises at the airport, where the escapees' flight reservations are confirmed at the last minute, and a guard's call to the supposed studio in Hollywood at first goes unanswered. The group boards the plane, which takes off just as the revolutionaries who uncovered the ruse try to stop them.

To protect the hostages remaining in Tehran from retaliation, all US involvement in the rescue is suppressed, giving full credit to the Canadian government and its ambassador (who left Iran with his wife under their own credentials as the operation was underway; their Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans and lied to the revolutionaries to protect them, escaped to Iraq). Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the classified nature of the mission, he would not be able to keep the medal until the details were made public in 1997. All the hostages were freed on January 20, 1981. The film ends with President Jimmy Carter's speech about the Crisis and the Canadian Caper.

Thanks to Wikipedia.

November 2012.

H.V. Anderz.

Laatst bijgewerkt op 09 november 2012.

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