Argo (2012)

On this Tax Day, I am reflecting on just how my tax dollars have been spent over my life as a tax payer.  There is a lot to regret, and this movie brings some of it to mind.

The movie is expertly put together, and since it reflects a real life story, one has to consider that the actual operation was picture perfect.  Ben Affleck the actor does and entirely competent job in his role as a CIA agent charged with getting 6 Americans out of Iran during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979.  Ben Affleck the director is awe inspiring.  His lack of a nominee in this category is regretable because while I am not sure that this is the Best Film of 2012 (which it won for), and I have always loved Ang Lee and am sure his award is well deserved this year as Best Director, the pace and content of this movie could easily have died in the hands of a less talented director.  Maybe Affelck is cursed with being very good at all aspects of film making, which masks his extraordinariness.

This is a thriller from start to finish, but it does not pull any of the cheap punches that thrillers so typically rely on these days.  The movie is a throw back on several levels--it takes place in 1979, and since I was a sophomore in college that year, I remember the time well, and there were no jarring inconsistencies that I noticed.  The story is one of essentially acting.  Affleck comes up with the plan.  He gets a Hollywood contact of his to help him buy a script and convince a producer to go along with their entirely fake plan to shoot a sci-fi movie in the desert in Iran.  So one man flies in, 7 people fly out--as the 'crew' for the movie.  They have all sorts of media events, have posters and scripts and storyboards, and off Affleck goes, into the teeth of the enemy.  The tension rises and falls at regular intervals, the action is of a limited scale, and the whole thing feels much more real than created. 

The movie also serves to remind us of the role that big oil plays in politics, both home and abroad, and how many extremely poor choices we have made in the service of those who make millions off of these interventions, but are never the ones left holding the bag, or paying the consequences.  Here we are,  in the aftermath of yet another oil related environmental nightmare, not to mention the tail end of a war that hasn't gone well, thinking about whether we need another pipeline going across the land.  Pray we make the right choice this time.