Argo

Yesterday Mrs TANBI and I went to see Argo.  It was sort of remedial Oscar viewing.  We'd meant to go see it a while ago but somehow hadn't.  So it was time to fix that.  We went to SouthSide Works.

I thought the movie was pretty good.  I like spy movies and I like behind the scenes movies so this was sort of in my wheelhouse.  The Hollywood characters were great and I could totally see how making a fake movie would be entirely possible.  Projects start and stop so often that it does seem like if you had the money to spend you could do whatever you wanted.

Movies set in the 70's and 80's are finding a special place in my heart.  I wonder if my folks had the same kind of feelings about movies set in the 50s.  Seeing the details really gets to me, like when they pan to the side of the bed and you see the kids 2XL toy.  I didn't have a 2XL but I had friends that did.  The cars and the clothes and the rotary phones all drive home the period.

Not much to talk about in terms of the story since it is a retelling of history.  I will say that all of the news resonated with me and seeing Ted Koppel and Dan Rather when they were much much younger strongly  reinforced the story.  I remember the hostage crisis.  I remember watching morning TV and having it interrupted for a news report and seeing the gate of the embassy.  As a kid it wasn't that scary.  I wonder what people old enough to have really understood would have felt.  The film really doesn't show how the news hit the home front aside from the actual players.

One of the other parts that struck me was how if they hadn't had to keep the success a secret they could have really mitigated the black eye the military got when they failed on their rescue attempt.  I can remember how inept the government and Carter looked after hearing the news about a botched rescue.  Following that up with a story of success would have made a big difference at the time. I wonder why they kept it secret for so long.

As the film progressed I found myself thinking that the actual Argo screenplay must be REALLY bad.  I came to that conclusion because I got to thinking that ti would have been a tremendous marketing advantage if they could have actually made the Argo movie to go with the original making of Argo story.  They could even have done it as an animated short, or as a made for TV special.  That they aren't using it at all suggests to me it must be really unimpressive.

Of course that is complete speculation.

I guess I'll give Argo an H.  Good film, well worth your time, and it'd probably be fine on your home screen.