Last night we did manage to get out of the house to finally check out the movie Argo. The film centered around the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981, and the incredible true story of an attempt to rescue several members of the hijacked American embassy, who escaped and were hiding in seclusion at the onset of the crisis. This rescue mission was achieved by way of a cover story created by the CIA, claiming that all of these American citizens were actually Canadians scouting out Iran as the location for a science fiction film... it makes you wonder what other real-life situations are actually stranger than fiction!
The hostage crisis was the first big news story I remember growing up. Really, how could you escape that news? It was an unbelievably tense situation, yet I was only nine years old at the time and knew little about why it all happened. This film opened my eyes to some of the international politics that originally sparked the crisis. I must admit that I'm only just getting my head around the history of Iran− Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis was quite helpful and creative in providing insight about the region's changing culture before and after the Islamic Revolution.
Argo definitely makes great use of news footage and other images from that time period. I think this is one the film's great triumphs− they definitely recreated the look and feel of the time period. Director Ben Affleck continues his string of interesting projects, yet I am still undecided about his acting− most of the time in this film he runs around looking overly serious... maybe it was the itchy 70s beard. I did love Alan Arkin and John Goodman during the scenes set in Hollywood... but as you see in the trailer, it does make for something of a thematic shift for the movie. I still think the filmmakers achieved a successful, cohesive project− the story was incredibly interesting, and threw several surprises at us during it's brisk two hours. Ultimately, it made me want to learn more about the crisis from the eyes of an adult, knowing the world and international politics the way I do now.
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| Getting topical... at age nine! "Fun-Book," January 1980. ©Jeremy Clowe. All rights reserved. |
On a related note, last month during Thanksgiving dinner my mother surprised me by bringing out some old artwork I had created as a kid. As we all had a good laugh looking through my comic books and marveling at my imagination, I was struck by the cover I created for the January 1980 issue of Fun-Book, a comic/activity book I regularly created for my friends. Pictured on the cover amidst various sci-fi characters of the day and my own "Super Babies" creations, I had drawn a pretty impressive caricature of both American President Jimmy Carter and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. I have to say that this caught me completely off-guard... not only seeing the artistic ability, but the topical nature of the work. †he Iran hostage crisis did make a big impression on me, but I did not remember creating this... my first political statement as it were. Here you see Hulk Baby about to tackle the Ayatollah, while President Carter literally stands on my head... even back then, current events seemed to weigh heavily on my mind.
Related Links:
"'Argo's' Real People: Individuals Who Inspired Characters Speak Out About Film, Hostage Crisis," Huffington Post, December 28, 2012
Argo official website
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