Argo (2012)

USA; 120min

Drama, History, Thriller

Director: Ben Affleck

Writers: Chris Terrio, Tony Mendez ("The Master of Disguise")

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman

'In 1950, the people of Iran elected Mohammad Mosaddegh, a secular democrat, as a prime minister. He nationalized British and U.S. petroleum holdings, returning Iran's oil to it's people. But in 1953 the U.S. and Great Britain engineered a coup d'état that deposed Mosaddegh and installed Reza Pahlavi as shah. The young shah was know for opulence and excess. His wife was rumored to bathe in milk while the shah had his lunches flown in by Concorde from Paris. The people starved.

The shah kept power through his ruthless internal police: The SAVAK. An era of torture and fear began. He then began a campaign to westernize Iran enraging a mostly traditional Shiite population. In 1979, the people of Iran overthrew the shah. The exiled cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, returned to rule Iran. It descended into score-settling, death squads and chaos. Dying of cancer, the shah was given asylum in the U.S.. The Iranian people took to the streets outside the U.S. embassy demanding that the shah be returned, tried and hanged.'

This is where story of Argo begins. U.S. Embassy in Iran on 4th November, 1979. Iranian protesters are breaking into embassy while American diplomats are burning all classified documents. In all that chaos six Americans managed to escape. They hid into Canadian ambassador's house and the story about their escape remained secret. Since they couldn't stay there forever a plan for their extraction was created by CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and a makeup man named John Chambers (John Goodman) under the supervision of CIA chief Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston). The plan was to fake a movie production with escaped Americans as Canadian crew who went in Iran to look for filming locations.

Argo is based on true events but large number of facts are distorted. For example, it is stated that British embassy turned away the six while in fact they sheltered them for a few days. Also Canadian role in operation is minimized what actually provoked a reaction from Canada and that's the reason for commentary at the end of the film about joint operation. There's also a bunch of minor distortions that were made just to pace up the story.
Opening scene, in which we see fall of embassy, is astonishing and sadly, it's Argo's peak alongside Bazzar scene. The rest of the movie is just an average drama with forced suspense in the form of multiple deus ex machina and last minute scenes that just give unnatural and cheap taste. Last 30 minutes of film are almost completely unnecessary, full of unrealistic action scenes and pathetic reactions on mission's result. Characters are also weakly developed but since the movie isn't based on them that's not a problem.
That's pretty much it of negative sides of Argo. The most positive is visual impression. Ben Affleck who both directed and embodied Tony Mendez did a solid job on both sides. Although the movie was shot mainly in U.S. and some little in Istanbul the feeling of authenticity is constant. Semi-documentary approach is great for subjects like this and wider context of happenings in Iran in 1979 are nicely narrated at the beginning of the film which was great surprise for me since a lot of critics and big part of audience proclaimed Argo an pro-American and anti-Iranian propaganda which it's definitely not. It's shown how Iranians only wanted to trial the shah Pahlavi who terrorized their country for decades and their anger towards Americans isn't strange since Americans installed Pahlavi as shah and now they were protecting him.

Only objection on Afflecks directing that I have goes to camera job. Why so many close-ups!? From two hours of film almost one hour are shaky close-ups and after some time it starts to be unbearable. Actors did what is expected from the A-list names, while Affleck proved once again that he's better behind camera than in front of it.
All in all Argo is a solid political thriller with strong elements of drama but it's far from being the movie of the year. There's absolutely nothing special about it and although it's fun to watch it's easy to forget it.

'1950. narod Irana je izabrao Mohammada Mosaddegha, sekularnog demokrata, kao premijera. On je nacionalizirao britanska i američka naftna polja, vraćajući iransku naftu svojim ljudima. No, 1953. SAD i Velika Britanija režiraju državni udar, miču Mosaddegha s vlasti i postavljaju Reza Pahlavia kao Shaha. Mladi Shah je bio poznat po životu u izobilju i neumjernosti. Prema glasinama se njegova supruga lupala u mlijeku, a Shahu su se ručkovi dostavljali Concordeom iz Pariza. Narod je gladovao. 

Shah je držao moć kroz nemilosrdnu unutarnju policiju: SAVAK. Era mučenja i straha je započela. Shah je započeo kampanju za približavanja Iran zapadu što je razbjesnilo većinsko tradicionalno šijitsko stanovništvo. 1979, narod Irana je srušio Shaha s vlasti. Prognani klerik, Ayatollah Khomeini, vratio se da vlada Iranom. To se pretvorilo u riješavanje starih računa, masovna streljanja i kaos. Umirući od raka, Shah je dobio azil u SAD-u. Iranski narod je izašao na ulice ispred američkog veleposlanstva zahtjevajući da se Shaha izruči, da mu se sudi i da ga se objesili.'

Tu počinje Argo. Veleposlanstvo SAD-a u Iranu  4. studenog 1979. Iranski prosvjednici provaljuju u veleposlanstvo dok američki diplomati uništavaju povjerljive dokumenate. U svom tom kaosu šest Amerikanaca uspjeva pobjeći. Sakrivaju se u kući Kanadskog veleposlanika, a priča o njihovom bijegu ostaje tajna. Budući da ne mogu tamo ostati zauvijek nastaje plan za njihovo izvlačenje u suradnji CIA-inog  eksperta za izvlačenje Tony Mendeza (Ben Affleck), Hollywoodskog producenta Lestera Siegela (Alan Arkin) i Johna Chambersa (John Goodman) pod nadzorom CIA-inog glavešine Jacka O'Donnella (Bryan Cranston). Plan je bio lažirati filmsku produkciju s pobjeglim Amerikancima kao kanadskim filmašima koji su u Iranu zbog potrage za lokacijama za snimanje. 

Argo se temelji na istinitim događajima, ali veliki broj činjenica je iskrivljen. Na primjer, navodi se da je Britansko veleposlanstvo odbilo primiti Amerikance, dok je činjenica da su se oni tamo skrivali prvih nekoliko dana. Također kanadska uloga u operaciji je svedena na minimum što je izazvalo burne reakcije u Kanade i to je razlog za komentar na kraju filma o zajedničkom pothvatu dvije države. Tu je i hrpa manjih nepravilnosti koje su učinjene kako bi se ubrzala radnja. 

Uvodna scena, u kojoj veleposlanstvo pada u ruke iranskih prosvjednika, je fenomenalna i nažalost, Argov vrhunac kojemu možda eventualno može parirati segment na Bazzaru. Ostatak filma je samo prosječna drama s isforsiranom neizvjesnosti u obliku prečestih deus ex machina i last minute scena koje samo daju neprirodan i jeftin okus filmu. Zadnjih 30 minuta je gotovo potpuno nepotrebno, natrpano nerealnim akcijskim scenama i patetikom. Likovi su također slabo razvijeni, ali budući da se film ne temelji na njima to i nije osjetni problem. 

To je uglavnom to od negativnih strana Arga. Najpozitivniji element je vizualni dojam koji izgleda maksimalno autentično iako je film sinman uglavnom u SAD-u uz par scena iz Istanbula. Ben Affleck, koji je i režirao i utjelovio Tonya Mendeza, je odradio solidan posao na obje strane. Polu-dokumentarni pristup je izvrstan za ovakvu tematiku, a i šire kontekst zbivanja u Iranu 1979. je lijepo iznešen odmah na početku filma što mi je bilo veliko iznenađenje s obzirom na uporno proglašavanje Arga proameričkom i antiiranskom propagandom, a on to definitivno nije. Prikaz Iranaca kako samo žele suđenje Shaha Pahlavi koji je terorizirao tu zemlju desetlječima te njihov bijes prema Amerikancima koji su ga postavili i kasnije štitili je daleko od proameričke propagande. No, kako to bude s Amerikancima, u korist potenciranja svoje snage i moći izgurali su Kanadski utjecaj u operaciji iako je on bio presudan.

Jedini segment Affleckovog režiserskog rada koji zaslužuju prigovor je kamera. Čemu toliko krupnih planova!? Od dva sata filma gotovo jedan sat su drmavi krupni planovi što nakon nekog vremena postane stvarno naporno. Glumci su odradili onako kako se očekuje od prvoklasnih imena, dok je Affleck još jednom pokazao da je bolji iza kamere nego ispred nje.

Sve u svemu, Argo je solidan politički triler sa jakim elementima drame, ali je jako daleko od filma godine. Ne postoji apsolutno ništa posebno o njemu, a iako je zabavan i zanimljiv u više segmenata, poprilično je zaboravljiv.