Story of movie Argo 2012 Film :
Argo is a 2012 American historical drama film directed by Ben Affleck. Screenwriter Chris Terrio adapted the screenplay from the book by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez, The Master of Disguise, and the 2007 Wired article by Joshuah Bearman, "The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran". The latter deals with the "Canadian Caper", in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, under the guise of filming a science fiction film during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.
| Argo | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ben Affleck |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Chris Terrio |
| Based on |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto |
| Edited by | William Goldenberg |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $44.5 million |
| Box office | $232.3 million |
The film, starring Affleck as Mendez, and Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, was released in the United States on October 12, 2012. It was produced by Grant Heslov, Affleck and George Clooney.
Upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim, with praise directed towards the acting (particularly Arkin's), Affleck's direction, Terrio's screenplay, the editing, and Desplat's score. The film received seven nominations at the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations: it won Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Alan Arkin. It won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Arkin was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. It also won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards, and 37th Hochi Film Award for Best International Picture.
Despite its praise, Argo has been criticized for some specific inaccuracies, in particular for minimizing the role of the Canadian embassy in the rescue, for falsely showing that the Americans were turned away by the British and New Zealand embassies, and for exaggerating the danger the group faced during events preceding their escape from the country.
Screenplay
On November 4, 1979, Iranian activists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution. 60 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture and are sheltered in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. With the escapees' situation kept secret, the U.S. State Department begins to explore options for exfiltrating them from Iran. Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation. He criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss when asked for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees: that they are Canadian filmmakers who are in Iran scouting exotic locations for a science-fiction film.
Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who had previously worked for the CIA. Chambers puts Mendez in touch with film producer Lester Siegel. Together, they set up a phony film production company, publicize their plans, and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy adventure" in the style of Star Wars, to lend credibility to the cover story. Meanwhile, the escapees grow restless. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and finally realize that some personnel are unaccounted for.
Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the alias Kevin Harkins and meets with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities. Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn when they are harassed by a hostile shopkeeper, but their Iranian culture contact hustles them away from the hostile crowd.
Mendez is told that the operation has been cancelled to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead anyway, forcing his boss Jack O'Donnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission and confirm their tickets on a Swissair flight. Tensions rise at the airport, where the escapees' ticket reservations are confirmed at the last minute, and the head guard's call to the fake production company in Hollywood is answered only at the last second. The group boards the airliner, which takes off just as the Revolutionary Guards at the airport are informed of the ruse and try to stop them.
To protect the hostages remaining in Tehran from retaliation, all U.S. involvement in the rescue is suppressed and full credit is given to the Canadian government and its ambassador (who shuts down the embassy and leaves Iran with his wife as the operation is underway). The ambassador's Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans and lied to the revolutionaries to protect them, escapes to Iraq. Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the mission's classified nature, he receives the medal in secret and has to return it afterwards. The award is restored to him after the Canadian Caper is declassified in 1997.
- Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez
- Bryan Cranston as Jack O'Donnell
- Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel
- John Goodman as John Chambers
- Tate Donovan as Robert Anders
- Clea DuVall as Cora Lijek
- Christopher Denham as Mark Lijek
- Scoot McNairy as Joe Stafford
- Kerry Bishé as Kathy Stafford
- Rory Cochrane as Lee Schatz
- Victor Garber as Ken Taylor (Canadian ambassador to Iran)
- Kyle Chandler as Hamilton Jordan (White House Chief of Staff)
- Chris Messina as Malinov
- Željko Ivanek as Robert Pender
- Titus Welliver as Jon Bates
- Bob Gunton as Cyrus Vance (Secretary of State)
- Richard Kind as Max Klein
- Richard Dillane as Peter Nicholls
- Keith Szarabajka as Adam Engell
- Michael Parks as Jack Kirby
- Tom Lenk as Rodd
- Christopher Stanley as Tom Ahern
- Page Leong as Pat Taylor
- Taylor Schilling as Christine Mendez
- Ashley Wood as Beauty
- Barry Livingston as David Marmor, CIA official
- Sheila Vand as Sahar
- Mina Kavani as Sahar (Voice)
- Nikka Far as Tehran Mary
- Omid Abtahi as Reza
- Karina Logue as Elizabeth Ann Swift
- Adrienne Barbeau as Nina
- Fouad Hajji as Komiteh
Argo is based on the "Canadian Caper" that took place during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980. Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on Joshuah Bearman's 2007 article "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran," which was published in Wired.
In 2007, the producers George Clooney, Grant Heslov and David Klawans set up a project based on the article. Affleck's participation was announced in February 2011. The following June, Alan Arkin was the first person cast in the film. After the rest of the roles were cast, filming began in Los Angeles in August 2011. Additional filming took place in McLean, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Istanbul. The scene in which Mendez drives up to and walks into the CIA headquarters lobby was filmed with permission at the CIA's original headquarters building in Virginia; all other scenes set at the CIA were filmed in the basement of the Los Angeles Times Building.
As a historical piece, the film made use of archival news footage from ABC, CBS and NBC; and included popular songs from the era, such as "Little T&A" by The Rolling Stones (an anachronism, as it was not released until the following year), "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen and "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin. For its part, Warner Bros. used its 1972–1984 title featuring the "Big W" logo designed by Saul Bass for Warner Communications to open the film and painted on its studio lot's famed water tower the logo of The Burbank Studios (the facility's name during the 1970s and 1980s when Warner shared it with Columbia Pictures).
The screenplay used by the CIA to create their cover story was an adaptation of Roger Zelazny's 1967 novel Lord of Light. Producer Barry Geller had spearheaded an earlier attempt to produce the film using the original title. After that production attempt failed, the screenplay was renamed Argo and used by the CIA.
According to Tony Mendez, Studio Six—the phony Hollywood production office he helped create at the core of the CIA plan—proved so convincing that even weeks after the rescue was complete and the office had folded, 26 scripts were delivered to its address, including one from Steven Spielberg.
In April 2016, research by VICE, based on documents received under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that the CIA was involved in the production of the 2012 Argo, as it was in a number of American entertainment productions (such as the well-established case of the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty).
| Argo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
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| Film score by Alexandre Desplat | |
| Released | October 9, 2012 |
| Genre | Film score Classical |
| Length | 58:37 |
| Label | WaterTower Music |
| Producer | Alexandre Desplat |
- Track listing
All tracks written by Alexandre Desplat, except where noted.
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