Argo (DVD Screening)

(Spoilers)

Argo had been in my pile of DVDs to watch for sometime now and with all the chat today regarding Affleck being cast as Batman for Man of Steel 2 it just gave me the push to watch it.  I was slightly apprehensive as I knew that this film dealt with some political issues and I often find these kind of films hard to follow however this was not the case with Argo.  It was made very easy to understand and I was able to follow throughout.

I enjoyed the way in which Mendez decided to get the 6 hostages out of Iran.  The cover of a film crew was interesting to me, a film fan, and the performances from Alan Arkin and John Goodman in this section were brilliant and probably my favorite of the film.  What is even more fascinating is that this film is based on true events, which of course makes a film feel that bit more like real life.

There were a few stages in the movie when I thought it was a bit slow moving but they didn’t last long and they were infrequent.  The tension built steadily throughout the movie and it came to a head at the airport, these scenes were the best of the film and you were really spurring the characters on at this stage more than before.  However one aspect I didn’t enjoy was when they were being questioned by the Iranians at the airport a lot of what they said was left untranslated so it was hard to grasp what was happening at times.  Subtitles would have better enhanced these scenes for the viewer.

Argo deserves praise for how well it portrayed the events of this period, during the credits the actors are placed beside photos of the characters they portrayed and scenes are parallel to the photos of the real life events and it is clear that Affleck stuck very close to these and has created the most accurate portrayal possible.  I was really surprised at how similar the photos were for the most part and it is evident how good a job the crew did at represented these.  However one thing I found quite strange throughout the film was the fact that you were routing for the Americans but it really was their own fault and you were not made to feel very much sympathy for the persecution that the Iranians faced during the dictatorship, however this was just a thought that was always at the back of my head but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the film.

I always knew that Argo was going to be good due to the reviews/awards etc that it received and because of this fact I feel that it was a little underwhelming, this isn’t a criticism but rather just an observation of how when you choose to watch a film can affect your reception of it.

BIGGEST FLAW – Failure to subtitle all scenes

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Accurate representation of the visuals from the real event

Rating – 8.5/10