I could have agreed with you if the American author of the book and movie producer would have been more honest in giving Canadians credit for their part.
Argo - A movie about the Canadian rescue of 6 Americans in Tehran back in 1980.
- Thread starter james t kirk
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.... I was an English/History student. I like me ma Shakespeare and I like anything that helps me understand the time Shakespeare penned his plays. I know Shakespeare In Love is very-much a chick flick and it's a story/ not a biography.... But I'm a girl, Romeo and Juliet is my favourite play, and I love how witty the screenplay was (and how well-acted the movie was).
I agree - Saving Private Ryan was certainly more deserving of the top award now that I think about it.... (I think it's safe to say that it's on most people's top 10 or 15 lists - it's definitely on mine).
But Shakespeare in Love is still my favourite movie
The Historical inaccuracies of Inglorious Bastards drove me nuts and I suspect the inaccuracies of Diego Unchained and Argo would bug me just as much.
I agree, I found Lincoln to be very slow (although good) two different movies but I prefer Argo.
First, that is a disgusting calumny against President Reagan.
Second, I find it very strange that you choose to defend those who staged mock executions of the hostages from the U.S. Embassy. I don't have nearly the confidence you do in the good intentions of the "students" and Ayatollah Khomenini.
Bob Mendez (and his co-author) wrote a book about the ex-filtration of the Americans being sheltered by the Canadian Embassy. Remember he was in Tehran for only about 48 hours, it was not intended to be a comprehensive history of the Canadian Caper.
When some of those shortcomings were pointed out to Ben Affleck, although he couldn't reshoot scenes, he did put in an entirely rewritten scroll page at the end of the movie.
Gotta love Jimmy Carter.
http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?hpt=hp_c2#/video/bestoftv/2013/02/22/pmt-jc-on-argo.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?hpt=hp_c2#/video/bestoftv/2013/02/22/pmt-jc-on-argo.cnn
Yes I just saw it myself. You can download it somewhere for sure, my brother downloaded it for me, Netflix I think. Definitely check it out. Excellent!
Well, after my friends explained that it wasn't a cheap take on a Canadian story and President Carter's interview by Piers Morgan, it seems like a must see, although I can't see how it's better than Silver Lining Playbook (but Piers said it gets his vote for Best Picture).
Had you been one of the Americans who required our help in Tehran, we might have been inclined to wrap you in your flag and push you out on to the street
You represent everything the world despises about the U.S.
You represent none of the qualities which made your country great.
Please do not ever visit Canada
We would need to wash all the streets afterwards
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I have not seen the movie yet. But I thought I heard that the important role played by Canada was relegated to a minor footnote at the end of the movie?
This stuff can always cut both ways. I'm a Canadian living and working in the US and still remember the uneasy feeling I had when I was at the border taking care of some immigration paperwork during the start of the Iraq war. There I was waiting my turn when some guy with a British passport ahead of me got out of some kinda paperwork glitch at the discretion of the US officer who I heard say to him " . . . hey, it's not like you guy's aren't helping us out over there in Iraq." Then came my turn . . .
I don't think Afflick was trying to create a movie that accurately portrays what happened in Tehran, he's a Hollywood director trying to make a movie that sells, ie. he want's to make money, period, and he succeeded. If he was trying to film a documentary he would do more investigating and research, it's not a documentary, it's a very entertaining movie with many parts embellished to make America look good and fuel their patriotism, so what, we know better, regardless the movie will win IMO due to it's entertainment value .
I've seen every movie, except for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and while I agree many other movies have certain areas that are better I still think Argo is best overall, thus best picture winner.
I've seen every movie, except for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and while I agree many other movies have certain areas that are better I still think Argo is best overall, thus best picture winner.
Another problem is that the book upon which it was primarily based was about Tony Mendez's work in exfiltrating the six who were being sheltered by the Canadian Embassy. Needless to say with a specific focus like that, it didn't give much attention to "the rest of the story" and Ben Affleck didn't fill that in.
Further large sections of a film that was true to life would be stupefyingly dull, since a successful exfiltration involves everything going smoothly and walking right past the bad guys without them suspecting a thing.
Now that said does it give a false impression of the British, and give less than full credit to Canada - Yes.
Former President Carter said the operation was 90% Canadian and that Mendez was there for about 36 hours.
The film was reasonably entertaining, but a bit of an insult to the Canadian input in the operation.
A hear Afflick had to ad some of that stuff on the end because of this issue, and has been making some quite apologies behind the scenes.
The film was reasonably entertaining, but a bit of an insult to the Canadian input in the operation.
A hear Afflick had to ad some of that stuff on the end because of this issue, and has been making some quite apologies behind the scenes.
All true.
However, at the same time the movie minimizes some of what Canada did let us not go the other way and minimize what Bob Mendez did. Perhaps the Iranians would have continued to have ignored the rules regarding those with diplomatic immunity, but Bob Mendez had no diplomatic immunity.
p.s. not to be the grammar police but the man's surname is Affleck
You are right about Affleck, I was copying from fun-guy.
I think Mr. Mendez was a very brave and talented man. I don't think that the film does much to give people a real understanding of what underlay the success of that operation. Including spotting the date screw up on the Visas that Mr. Mendez then fixed.
You've got too much Petzel on the brain and that's who I thought would jump in on this, lol. I'm not one vying for any literary awards on this board, just trying to get opinions across, a mistake here and there doesn't bother me, incomprehensible posts do however.
