2012 was not only a great year for movies in general but it was also a good year for the spy movie genre as well. A side from Skyfall another in the second installment to my Spy movie genre is the Best Picture winner of 2012, Argo. Directed and starring Ben Affleck along with a great list of actors as well as Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Academy Award winner Alan Arkin who also was nominated for a best supporting actor nominee back in 2012. I knew that Affleck was turning into a great film director, and he is shown it with both Gone Baby Gone and the Town, which when you think about it was a Ben Affleck trilogy of movie directing with Argo being the final installment via winning the Best Picture award. Re-watching and thinking about it now I never really knew much about the Iran Hostage Crisis ten years ago, and this was again a great movie in terms of a history lesson but also a great film when it comes to suspense and just extreme fear when it comes to hearing this on the news back in 1979 and I can remember watching this great movie with my Mom and remember telling me that she thought we'd be going into a war with Iran, though watching what really happens to six house guest and the name Tony Mendez is truly remarkable interns of heroism, especially now since he died in 2019, so RIP Tony Mendez.
On Nov. 4, 1979, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran taking 66 American's hostages. Amid the chaos, six American's managed to slip away and find refuge with the Canadian Ambassador's House. Knowing it is just a matter of time before the refugees are found and likely executed, the U.S. Government calls on extractor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to rescue them. Mendez's plan is to pose as a Hollywood producer scouting locations in Iran and train the refugees to act as his film crew.
A lot of people will say that yes Ben Affleck's best movie is Good Will Hunting and sure they can all say that because he was indeed in the movie furthermore co-written the screenplay with Matt Damon but to be fair and honest, he was just the supporting character in that movie. What I am really referring to as his best work is in the starring role and Argo is without a question one of his finest works as well as a director in general, moreover one of his greatest movies in his entire filmography. And I am not going to lie I have not seen this for quite a long time, but everything is still there from the amazing cast and acting to the great writing and directing and the suspense that literally puts you on the edge of your seat. Moreover, I know how that movie even ends but I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat through the course of the movie just having a complete knot in my stomach, and Affleck as a director does such a fantastic job in creating great tension in the film as well as editing it to the point where you do not breathe a sigh of relief through the third act of the movie. The other thing in what Affleck does really well is staying loyal to the story, and really just showing you as an audience member just how dangerous it was to live in Iran back in the early 80's and even in scenes of finding the best way of rescuing the house guest when in all reality there was no good option to have on the table and I loved the scene where the CIA are pitching ideas on how to get them out and I'm just sitting there just thinking how terrible of ideas they were pitching and how can they seriously think Mendez's idea would not work, hell even Affleck says it best that it's only finding the best bad idea. Affleck as an actor does a great job playing Mendez as a man who truly believes his ideas of a fake movie is the best thing and will fight for it tooth and nail to get these six individuals out of enemy lines, but also is a smart guy especially finding the perfect way to fool the enemy especially when it looks almost to ridiculous, but also ingenious as well. Bryan Cranston does a great job playing Affleck's handler as well as his only supporter throughout the Agency, as well as both John Goodman and Alan Arkin who the two of them do a great job playing Hollywood people who know how much of a shame the business is but is also reliable when it comes to making Affleck's character's idea the best hope. And it isn't just Affleck, Cranston, Goodman and Arkin that makes this movie great it's also the actors who play the house guest as well as those guys (those guys meaning the actors you think you know them from but have no clue what their names are) but most importantly the Iranian militants and the militia, well start with the house guest who all together do a great job in terms of acting and character development for which all of them are so scared of being caught but realizing that there's no choice in having to leave Iran for good, all of the Iranian actors in the movie does a great job in creating so much tension through the course of the first act of the movie and the third act, especially Sheila Vand who plays the maid for the Canadian Ambassador who know all too well about the House guest and is given a fateful choice of whether to sell them out or keep their secret close to her even if it means her own life, even the militia who are at the airport does a great job too in being both terrifying when it comes to searching for six Americans disguised as Canadians, now before I close this review I did forget one actor and that's Victor Garber (who played the Naval Architect in Titanic) does a great job in helping the house guest stay safe but worries about getting caught. Of all spy movies I have seen Argo is really the more realistic spy movie I have seen because it takes out a hundred percent of the action sequences and high-tech gadgets you usually find in Spy movies in general and really focuses more on the human story of one man saving the lives of six people in hostile territory. Ten years ago, I still give praise to Argo and now I still give this tremendous praise for Ben Affleck and will rank this up there in one hundred of the greatest movies I have ever seen and will still say to this day that this is one of Affleck's greatest movies ever in terms of directing and performance.
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