Posts tagged Tony Mendez
“Argo” Is Funny and Serious
Oct 20th
Hotshots, October 17, 2012
“Funny and Serious”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Argo is an excellent film based on a true story you might never have heard about concerning the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy for 444 days by Iranian militants.
It is also a very funny film that pokes fun at the filmmaking business in Hollywood, which together makes it a sure-fire candidate to be recognized at the 2013 Academy Awards.
As a matter of fact, the film was a surprise hit at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival, where director Ben Affleck told a screening audience that he tried to make a film that was one part action thriller, one part comedy, and one part inspired by a 1970s film like the 1976 All the President’s Men.
He succeeded, and he should be very proud of the results.
What the world didn’t know at the time was that when the American Embassy was taken over in November 1979, six men and women managed to escape and hide out in the Canadian Embassy.
Affleck also stars as Tony Mendez, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist, and he comes up with a risky and dangerous plan to get the six Americans out of Iran without the militants knowing about it.
Once Tony’s plan is approved, his boss, played by Bryan Cranston, tells him, “The whole world is watching you; they just don’t know it.”
What Tony proposed was that he pretend to be a Canadian filmmaker, get into Iran with all the necessary documents for himself and the six Americans, and then convince the Iranian authorities that all seven of them were a Canadian film crew who were in Iran scouting for locations for a science-fiction movie they were making, using a script for an actual movie in turnaround called Argo.
However, in order to do that, Hollywood has to be convinced that the story is real, as well, and Tony gets the help of a producer played by Alan Arkin and a makeup artist played by John Goodman.
The title of the ARGO movie is used in a very funny and profane way, and you won’t be able to hear the word again without smiling or laughing.
When Tony tells the six Americans what he wants them to do, they aren’t completely cooperative, and the tension keeps building and building until the very end.
Argo is very funny and serious.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
END
Argo – Movie Trailer
Oct 20th
Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis-the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist named Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.
