#argofilm

Sauce

Three Stars

See what I did there? With the Title? If you have seen the film you will know how unoriginal that really was. Anyway, I started watching Argo a few weeks ago and turned it off out of boredom. I felt like I was watching a bad Oliver Stone film, the camera angles changing every few seconds and no shot lasting longer than 5. However after the film won an oscar for best picture I thought I would watch the whole thing, just to see if it deserved such an award.

As I mentioned, the opening of the film is hard to get through and painful to the eye. Its certainly not a visual feast, more like a visual punishment. After 15 minutes or so of Iranian protesters charging into a united states embassy in Tehran, we finally see a story coming along. So if you haven't seen it yet, try and sit through the first part of the film. Basically what happens is 6 americans escape from the Iranians and avoid being taken hostage. They are then taken in by the canadians and are hiding out the home of the canadian ambassador. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA exfiltration expert, comes up with the idea to shoot a fake movie in Iran in order to gain access to the country and bring back the 6 americans that are in hiding. Pretty simple right? Its really not much story for a 2 hour film, and its quite obvious while your watching it. The shooting of the fake film should be the highlight of the story but we don't get to see much of it, I guess it would take away from the actual crisis in the story. The film seems to be full of fillers. Scenes of Tony Mendez's ex-wife and son, unnecessary scenes of Iranian children and of course the very long intro. Its really not a fast paced film despite all the fast paced camera work. There were many moments that I questioned the relevance of certain scenes.

So after all that (apologies if you actually liked Argo), I'll say what I liked about it. First of all, the dialogue was brilliant. Every line was sharp, witty and well thought out. The kind of writing that makes you wish you had that wit, but in real life. So kudos to Chris Terrio, hopefully he will start writing for films more often. Alan Arkin plays an old hollywood superstar and his performance was great, but it was quite brief. Ben Affleck was good to watch, as usual, but didn't really have much character to work with. The scenes in hollywood were really funny, the mocking of the show business worked really well in the film. Ill also just say that the use of suspense in the film is fantastic. The director (also Ben Affleck), managed to make each scene in the escape quite nerve racking.

So the verdict? Good. The film was good. If you want to sit down and be entertained for a couple of hours then go nuts. But it wasn't meaningful or moving, I wasn't thinking about it for hours after watching it. It wasn't a piece of art, or a protest. It was just another box-office hit. So why did it win an oscar for best picture? Well as far as I can tell, any picture about an important part of american history has a pretty good chance of winning. As does any picture based on a true story. Argo not only ticks those two boxes, its also a film about the alliance between Canada and America. And we have a winner. No, the film isn't oscar-worthy, but if it sits well with the majority then so be it. Surely Lincoln, The Master and Life of Pi are all better movies than Argo. But I digress.

Unfortunately we live in a subjective world.