Argo (2012)

[oyceter]

Dear movie: when you begin with an explanatory sequence about the election of Mohammad Mosaddegh and how the US and UK plotted to overthrow him because he was limiting their access to oil, and then how the US- and UK-supported shah became increasingly tyrannical, and then describe the Iranian Revolution and the US giving political asylum to the shah and how Iranians were kind of pissed off by this and stormed the US Embassy, it really doesn't position me to be all that sympathetic to portrayals of Iranian mobs and poor scared USians holding up against the Scary Angry Muslim Hordes (tm).

(I am, hopefully obviously, also not in favor totalitarian regimes, holding embassy people hostage, and etc. It's just that Hollywood has produced quite a few things with this point of view and very few things centering on POC and critiquing USian world policy.)

Argo is a well-made movie. That said, I was bored during nearly all of it, save looking at all the period clothing and furniture. Oh, and I was vastly amused by SpyDaddy (Victor Garber) playing the Canadian ambassador. I could tell that all the last-minute drama in the movie was made up and not based on true events, because hey, Hollywood. Also, I am annoyed at all the focus on Tony Mendez instead of the six diplomats and the Canadian ambassador, particularly at the insertion of his attempts to stay in touch with his young son while he and his wife are going through a break. Of course, part of the film's conclusion is Mendez hugging his son and his (nameless, voiceless) wife as a fitting heteronormative nuclear family reward to his ordeal. Oh manpain. I am so bored by you.

(Was curious if Mendez himself ID's as white; I can't tell from Google.)

So: well-made movie that basically conforms to the "single person saves the day" narrative and "scary Muslim people" narrative. I feel like I've seen enough of these already and would much rather give my money to something that is at least trying to be a bit different. (Watched this with the family, ergo the choice of movie.)

Also saw a preview of Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis' next shot for the Oscar, Lincoln. Am very uninterested, wish the preview didn't advocate the "single great (white) man freeing the slaves out of the goodness of his heart" narrative, also would like to see a movie about slavery that daresay stars Actual Black People (tm). As opposed to, you know, a few crowd shots of black people eagerly awaiting Lincoln's words re: their fate.

... sometimes I forget how rare just passing part of the Bechdel test (and its equivalents) is. Le sigh.

Comments

[hesychasm]

I was planning to watch Argo on DVD or something, as I'm sort of following Bryan Cranston's ventures into film. But I've been wary of the US focus as well.

You might be interested in Twelve Years A Slave when it comes out next year. It's directed by Steve McQueen, who awesomely took a panel of white directors to task here (video link). And it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is just, you know, awesome.

[oyceter]

Ooo thanks for the tip! Will definitely be keeping an eye out for that.

[giandujakiss]

Was curious if Mendez himself ID's as white; I can't tell from Google

He absolutely does not. I liked the movie a lot more than you did, but that bit of casting really bugged me.

[oyceter]

BOOOO Hollywood! I was wondering after seeing some pics in the Wiki article. Am also a bit annoyed at the movie's divide between home life and Sekrit Agent Life, versus what the article makes it sound like.

[boxofdelights]

He identifies as Latino but that doesn't necessarily mean he does not identify as white. Like me, he's got a Latino father and a white mother; like me, he's got a Spanish last name but he's a native speaker only of English.

As for me, my mom's white but I'm not; my dad's Puerto Rican but I'm not. What is Tony Mendez? You'd have to ask him.

[oyceter]

Good point, and thanks.

[oracne]

How were the costumes?

[oyceter]

They were good! Very un-glam late-70s early-80s. I also enjoyed the bits during the credits where they posted pictures of the actors in the movie next to pictures of the people they portrayed. (Except Ben Affleck. I suspect because he does not seem to look much like Tony Mendez?)

[oracne]

Hmmm. I am mostly curious about this movie because it's history that I remember living through. Costumes would be fun to look at, as well.

[oyceter]

I think it'd definitely be interesting then! I had a ton of fun seeing people and scenes that basically look just like pictures of my mom and dad when I was born

[oracne]

I remember watching the DNC and the election when Carter was elected.

[yasaman]

Pretty much no Americans outside of history buffs or people with interest in Middle Eastern history/policy know about Operation Ajax and the overthrow of Mossadegh, so I'm kind of excited that it even gets an explanation at all. Because, seriously, it is a big fucking reason why Iran is so ambivalent to the US and UK. US media never cares to explain the circumstances leading up to the revolution in 1979.

[arch]

Yeah -- for me, that first bit, told as it was in the voice of a woman with a Farsi accent, cast a huge shadow over the entire rest of the movie. Everything afterward read to me as Iranians trying to put their country back together after disastrous imperialist interventions by the US and UK that directly precipitated horrible cruelties. It was such an unexpected framework for me, in a Hollywood movie, that I saw it as an intentional complication of what could otherwise be interpreted as a straightforwardly anti-Iranian film.

[oyceter]

*nods* Yeah, I was very prepped by the opening bit to be cheering for the Iranians, which was a bit confusing because I knew the basic premise of the movie. And then it kind of went into Ben Affleck rescue mode, which was very BZUH?!

[oyceter]

*facepalm* Oh US. Sometimes it is sad how you manage to not fulfill my very lowered expectations.

In that case, I am really really glad that the movie had the prologue it did, although I really wish it had followed with a movie that was more about the Iranians and what they were doing and feeling and thinking during the hostage crisis.

[(Anonymous)]

There's an interesting 2002 (U.S.-made) film called "Maryam" (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/maryam/) about an Iranian-American immigrant family living in New Jersey and their experiences during the hostage crisis. I'm not sure it ever got very widely distributed or released on DVD (I got to see it for free around the time it was originally released because the director--who I believe is Iranian-American himself--is married to one of my co-workers), but you might be able to order it via Netflix or something.

The film focuses mainly on the title character, an Americanized teenage girl who prefers to be called Mary, and her anti-Shah cousin Ali, who has recently arrived from Iran to attend college in the U.S. and really freaks out when the Shah is not only given asylum, but winds up being treated for cancer or whatever terminal illness he had in a hospital not far from the town where the Iranian immigrant family lives. I thought the movie was pretty good overall, although the outcome of the earnestly nerdy Ali's half-baked attempt to sneak into the hospital to assassinate the Shah seemed rather unrealistic. (Actually, it was probably pretty unrealistic that he didn't get stopped before he even reached the hospital building.)

Marfisa

[oyceter]

Oooo, thank you for the rec, will have to find that!

[holyschist]

I thought the only reason Affleck played Mendez and Mendez had the gratuitous family subplot was because Affleck was the producer; he was definitely the only person in the main cast who wasn't seriously chosen and made up to look like his real counterpart (probably because...there was just no way that was happening), and I thought he was the weakest acting-wise.

it really doesn't position me to be all that sympathetic to portrayals of Iranian mobs and poor scared USians holding up against the Scary Angry Muslim Hordes (tm).

I actually thought the movie wasn't trying to push that view at all; we both came out of it thinking "Huh, that was a slightly sneaky critique of US foreign policy." Whether the rest of the movie wipes out the critique, which was most apparent in the opening sequence and somewhat undermined by the focus on Affleck-Mendez Saving the Day (some warping of reality required), for the average movie-goer, I don't know--but I didn't think it meant to be uncritical.

[oyceter]

Oh yeah, I totally think the only reason Affleck plays Mendez and Mendez gets all that plot is because of Affleck's personal stake in the movie.

I don't actually think that the movie was trying to push the view of Angry Muslim Hordes; and in fact if a lot of USians didn't know about the US and UK's complicity in Iranian affairs, I'm really glad they put that at the beginning of the movie.

I just kind of wish that it had followed with more from the point of view of Iranians.. I feel mostly we just got the maid, who is portrayed as a possible threat (though an ally in the end), and then a lot of shots of crowds and crowds of Iranians screaming and yelling, or scenes like the seven of them driving to the bazaar and random people just hitting the minivan over and over.

So... better than a straight up "Iran sucks!" message! But also really wish we could have individual named Muslim characters to sympathize with and etc., on par with how many white people we got.

[holyschist]

*nods* I enjoyed it more than you did, I think, and it made me go look up what really happened, which I'm glad about. But it definitely could have been a better movie if it had done some things differently, and you're absolutely right that it didn't balance out the story of the white characters with anything from an Iranian point of view.

[oyceter]

Ha, yeah, I saw that Mendez and his wife are putting out a book on Argo soon, which I am going to try and grab! It also really makes me want to reread Persepolis and its POV on the Iranian Revolution.

[holyschist]

Persepolis was good! One of these days I should check out the movie...

[chomiji]

Hmmm, I'm really glad you commented on this.

[oyceter]

Ahaha, snarky film reviews seem easier to post than book reviews.... -_-;;