Argo Review

Starting out with a very intense riot, Argo picks up the pace right from frame one and never lets you go for a full two hours. An experience like very few, Argo fuses live footage of the 1979 Iranian revolutionaries with a modern filmed throwback to the tense days during which people were fearful for the lives of the Americans who were trapped within the borders.

Ben Affleck tells the story of the 1979 crisis from two angles. The first being those who were directly affected inIran and the second being those who worked on making sure the conflict was resolved without any blood being shed. Both angles were unique, the latter focusing on tension relieving humour, allowing veteran actors Alan Arkin and John Goodman to relive the early days of science fiction films. Both actors delivered lines that perpetuated the look and feel ofHollywood at that time.

Packing in as much humour as it could, Argo becomes a film that parallels humour with the ever building tension. During one extremely well-cut scene, we see a table reading for the fake screenplay Argo and a tense scene featuring the hostages inIran. Almost a world apart, these two events are connected by a thin operation that could spell disaster if not done properly. The scene was engaging, the lights, the sounds of the 1979 Hollywood coming to life, and the dark, depressing revolution also taking centre stage at the exact same time.Affleck himself and Bryan Cranston lead the dramatic acting side of things, and helped add to the pressure of having to be thorough enough to get the job done.

At its core Argo is a made for Hollywood feature that has a feel good ending. Argo is falls under the classic theatre definition of comedy, with its realistic ending that just happens to be a positive one for many of the characters involved. Everything about this film is real, from the dialogue, to the hostage scenes, to the final scenes where the characters are left to figure out what comes next. The one thing that really worked for Argo was that it took us on the journey of the people, where it lead them and how they dealt with it.

Possibly the current frontrunner for best picture, Argo is a must see, there is no doubt about that. Emotional, gripping and real, Argo is more then just a film, it’s a history lesson.

9/10