Daily Times

Hailed as one of the best pictures of the previous year, Ben Affleck’s political thriller Argo won three academy awards in the Oscar ceremony held on February 24. The movie also received rave reviews from notable film critics. Argo is set in the backdrop of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, which smeared the reputation of the then US president Jimmy Carter while putting an eternal dent in US-Iran ties. The crisis also played a pivotal role in Carter losing his re-election bid in 1980.

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic disaster in which more than 50 Americans were taken hostage on November 4, 1979 by supporters of the Iranian revolution, who managed to break in and occupy the US embassy in Tehran. The occupiers demanded that the Shah, who was being treated for gallstones in the US, be returned to Iran to face trial for the crimes he had committed against his people.

Loosely based on the book The Master of Disguise by the former CIA agent, Tony Mendez, the movie follows Mr Mendez as he plans the daring escape of six American diplomats who had managed to get out of the embassy premises just as it was overrun by mobsters. The diplomats take refugee in the residence of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor, while Tony Mendez and his superior cook up a plan to get them out of the country in the guise of Canadian filmmakers.

The plot is tailor-made for an excellent thriller. Affleck fished out an intricate historical event and turned it into a feel-good patriotic extravaganza. However, while making a movie based on a historical event, it is the duty of a responsible filmmaker to present his audience with a narrative that is based on facts. Otherwise, the movie will be viewed as an attempt at re-writing history and twisting facts to make an unfair political statement. Affleck has proved himself time and again both as an actor and a director, but, unfortunately, Argo laid bare the limited political vision of this otherwise brilliant artist who also happens to have a degree in Middle Eastern affairs.

Argo starts with a very brief introduction of events leading to the Iranian revolution. The actual film starts after the US embassy is stormed and its American staff is taken hostage. During the introduction, the viewers are told that the US was involved in overthrowing Prime Minister Mossaddeq’s government because he nationalised Iran’s oil. It was also mentioned that the US supported the Shah while he clamped down on his opponents with an iron fist. But merely these two statements do not absolve the filmmakers of their responsibility to portray Iranians as an intellectually diverse nation rather than a barbaric horde of bearded gun-trotting men — and women.

Argo does not even spare staunch US allies like Britain and New Zealand whose diplomats supposedly refused to offer sanctuary to the distraught American escapees. On the contrary, it was a diplomat from New Zealand’s embassy who had driven the Americans to the airport. The British did not turn away the US diplomats either. The Americans first took shelter with the British and were later shifted to the Canadian diplomat’s house after they realised that staying at the British location was fraught with risks.

Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat who played a pivotal role in the actual escape, was also treated rather unfairly. His role was diminished to a detached observer while the CIA operative took all the risks and did all the work. As if implications were not enough, the postscript bluntly states that the CIA, for political purposes, handed over the credit for the successful extraction of American diplomats to Mr Taylor. The Canadian diplomat who risked his life in order to save his American counterparts in Tehran deserved more than that.

The most memorable events in Argo, claimed to be based on a true story, actually never happened. The group was not threatened by suspicious Iranians in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar since they never went there. The Carter administration never cancelled the air tickets. They were purchased by Taylor’s wife. There was no interrogation at the airport. And there was no last-minute chase on Mehrabad airport’s runway.

The cover story of a fake movie had no relevance in the actual getaway. The escape of the US diplomats was smooth and uneventful. They simply boarded the plane to Zurich in a normal manner without any confrontation with the security officials. Moreover, the movie conveniently chooses to forget the rest of the hostages who had to endure an entire year in captivity before being released.

Despite claims of being an impartial account of the Canadian caper, Argo is actually a propaganda movie that deliberately exploits a widely known historical event and crafts around it a prejudiced depiction of an entire nation without considering the implications of the image it is creating. The political effect of the movie is further amplified by the current nuclear stand-off between Iran and the United States, and the imminent threat of another bloody war in the Middle East.

The writer is an investment banker and a freelance columnist for various publications. He can be reached at syedatifshamim@hotmail.com