<p>Oh my GOD go see this movie.</p>
<p>Really need to. Ben Affleck’s really becoming quite the director.</p>
<p>Just saw it. Incredible.</p>
<p>Just saw Argo this weekend - It’s a fun, witty, entertaining movie which is what makes it horrifying at some deep level. Like a fun movie about Hitler and those brave SS soldiers. By retelling this history in this way, Affleck flips the larger truth on it’s head. Because we were the bad guys in Iran, not the good guys as this movie makes out. So at some level, this is a deeply reactionary movie - that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hate when that happens.</p>
<p>To give Affleck credit, the first starts out with a very clear expository about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected government in Teheran to install their puppet, Shah Reza Pahlavi. And it mentions Savak, the brutal secret police that the US trained and armed to keep him in power, and that they engaged in torture. And yes, there are even a shot, midway during the hostage crisis, of wahoo Americans beating up an Iranian student-type. But all of this gets lost in the emotional drama of the story where Americans are clearly the good guys. For example, you see Embassy staff maniacally shredding documents as the rioters breach the embassy walls, but it doesn’t say that the documents shredding was probably to protect informers who kept them and Savak up to date on who was trying to oust Pahlavi. It shows rioters who hate westerners and abusive soldiers torturing embassy staff - but it doesn’t explain how much that hatred was deserved, if not by those individuals, then by the US govt. So you end up rooting for the wrong people - and not apologizing for the US’s role in undermining a legitimate fledgling democracy and installing a dictator.</p>
<p>So lots of fun to watch. Clever dialogue. A hero who, as usual, bucks the chain of command to honor his commitment to rescue his people. A movie that works primarily because cell phones didn’t exist. And yes, the rescue itself was heroic because those embassy workers did not deserve to be held hostage for 444 days and threatened. (Most were innocent of wrong-doing: The rest were ‘just following orders’ by keeping Savak up to date.) And yet it is going to add fuel the current rage against Islamic cultures by making them out to be brutal, reactionary, a bit comical in their incompetence, and in desperate need of a shave.</p>
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