Argo wins Best Picture at Academy Awards

Editor’s Note:
The film Argo took away top honors at the Oscars this year, winning Best Picture. Argo also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture of 2012 along with a Best Director Award for Ben Affleck. Following is a review of Argo written by Veritas staffer, Meghan Lee.

Meghan Lee
Veritas Staff

Argo was directed and produced by Ben Affleck who also played main character Tony Mendez. Affleck did such an great job directing that you could not tell what could have been actual footage or a recreation of the events surrounding the Iranian Hostage Crisis that began in November, 1979 when 50 Americans at the U.S. embassy in Iran were taken hostage by the Iranians.

Affleck’s character, Tony Mendez, is a CIA agent aiding in the rescue mission of six workers from the U.S. Embassy who had escaped before being taken hostage, and who were in hiding at the Canadian ambassador’s home. The film co-stars Alan Arkin and John Goodman whose characters help Mendez (Affleck) come up with a plan to save these six Americans.

Mendez is on the phone with his son watching a tv show when he comes up with a plan to save the men and women. The characters played by Arkin and Goodman along with Bryan Cranston, come up with a story that Mendez would be a film producer going to Iran to film a science fiction movie called Argo. They set up a fake studio, make posters, create a fake script, all necessary to make their film seem real.

The movie is interesting because of the character of Mendez. He is determined to save the embassy workers in hiding despite the fact the mission was cancelled at the last minute by the CIA due to safety concerns. After much thought Mendez decides to move forward with his plan to save them.

At the theatre the day I saw Argo, I noticed it seemed to attract adults in their thirties and older, not so much young adults and teenagers. This may be because the movie is based on a political story set in 1980 and does not involve a lot of action. The last thirty minutes of the film, however, had much suspense and kept you on the edge of your seat in their attempt to escape from the Ambassador’s house to the airport and through airport security.

Argo is two hours long. It has been nominated for seven Academy Awards and just won the Golden Globe Award for drama.