Review of Argo

Argo (2012)
1/10
Stop with the "Reality" Cinema already...
19 January 2013
Six American embassy staff are sheltered and smuggled out of the Iran, quietly, safely and without any fuss. It just gets done as it should, with the help of the western diplomatic community including Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Britain and New Zealand.

You could make a film out of it - but it would be a documentary and probably boring as simple competency and decency make for poor cinema these days.

You can also make a Die-hard/RAMBO type film with one man against the system, lots of car chases, explosions, improbable plot twists and cliffhanger type of escapes. These can be a lot of fun to watch when done right.

Or you can make a film that is something in between, where you intersperse actual events and people to trick viewers into taking the pulp fiction seriously. It is important to make sure that most of the audience was not alive when the events occurred - just stress the few cultural references that they know and give a slide show at the end to convince them how real it all was. And add a one sentence disclaimer so that all those friends that did help aren't too offended.

I personally prefer the first two types of film that either give credit to the very real people who actually did risk their very real lives or be honest with the audience that this is make-believe.

Or at the very least - make something that can stand on its own without having to pretend that most of it actually happened.
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