Toronto Passions

Argo - A movie about the Canadian rescue of 6 Americans in Tehran back in 1980.

Aardvark154

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Now besides the Golden Globes, Argo just won Best Picture at the SAG awards. It looks like it has a bit of momentum going into the Academy Awards.
 

fun-guy

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Jun 29, 2005
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You may recall that it was a great time to be a Canadian in the U.S.A.
I was in Florida when this happened and everyone was buying us Canadians down there beers all night long, hugs everywhere, even the bikini clad ones, lol. Great time indeed.

Oh you smug little people. Thanks for nothing.
Safe to say no American shared your views, you actually are an embarrassment. Are you sure you're an American or just a Canadian pulling our leg.

btw, I really, really like this movie and having seen most, but not all, of the other films up for awards I support Argo for best picture and best Director, oh and best Actress. Very entertaining movie, I was engaged throughout the film.
 

james t kirk

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Aug 17, 2001
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I ended up seeing Argo and it's a good film.

But I also saw Lincoln and it's a GREAT film.

I can't imagine that Argo would beat out Lincoln unless there is some sort of anti-Spielberg thing happening in Hollywood.
 

oldjones

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Aug 18, 2001
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A wise man once said, "Theatre is art. Movies are entertainment. Television is furniture." Truth to history appears nowhere in his list, even historians have trouble with that one.

But no one should ever come away from a movie imagining they saw what happened. They are made by people who lie for money. Sit back and enjoy the lies, like your caveman ancestors did when they figured out what flickering firelight was really good for.
 

Aardvark154

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Absolutely OldJones indeed I have complained about this before myself.


Movie making, however, is movie making - how suspenseful an ending would it have been that the most exciting things that happened at the airport were one person caught himself picking up a discarded Farsi Newspaper and starting to read it (before thinking what sort of Hollywood type would read Farsi), and another had a mini-meltdown in the men's room (which of course is a credit to the expertise of Tony Mendez)

Likewise it "disis" the British Embassy rather than explaining that the Revolutionary guards actually searched the apartments either side of the one where Americans were being hidden and they HAD to be moved somewhere else. It makes the Carter Administration seem even more dithering than it was - there was no last minute yes-no-yes dithering about the exfiltration by the White House. Then of course there are the misrepresentations of the actions of Canadian Diplomats (which actually cuts both ways in different parts of the movie).
 

oldjones

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Aug 18, 2001
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What is regrettable is our increasing preference for easy-to-digest, TV-ready, junk-food pap made of suspense, and 'splosions, and white-hat, black-hat colour-coded characters, over the more difficult and nuanced stories that are closer to real life than comic books and therefore as difficult to tell as they are to absorb.

That McDonalds of the mind addiction to images rather than words which TV creates and lives off is why so much of today's political life is populated by one-dimension cartoon characters whose idea of a statement is no more than a slogan, and who we 'analyse' and 'evaluate' by no standard higher than name-calling (See: Politics and International Affairs, any number of posts therein). We are the living demonstration project for 'Life imitates Art'.

Except we're imitating TV, not art, and TV is furniture. Nothing wrong with making respectable furniture; I did it for years, but when you first hear a voting adult repeats a trope from Argo, or Zero Dark 30 as if it was history, "I told you so." They are the histories we're giving ourselves.
 

blackrock13

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Jun 6, 2009
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Absolutely OldJones indeed I have complained about this before myself.


Movie making, however, is movie making - how suspenseful exciting an ending would it have been that the most exciting things that happened at the airport were one person caught himself picking up a discarded Farsi Newspaper and starting to read it (before thinking what sort of Hollywood type would read Farsi), and another had a mini-meltdown in the men's room (which of course is a credit to the expertise of Tony Mendez)

Likewise it "disis" the British Embassy rather than explaining that the Revolutionary guards actually searched the apartments either side of the one where Americans were being hidden and they HAD to be moved somewhere else. It makes the Carter Administration seem even more dithering than it was - there was no last minute yes-no-yes dithering about the exfiltration by the White House. Then of course there are the misrepresentations of the actions of Canadian Diplomats (which actually cuts both ways in different parts of the movie).
Much of what you say is true and one has to go with this in mind. I understand those who were involved are not unhappy with the end result, as they were handle quite respectfully by Affleck, but do emphasize that it 'is' Hollywood.
 

LKD

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Aug 6, 2006
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No doubt, there was danger for everyone involved. Imagine if this information was known as the embassy staff arrived back in the USA. Kenny would be pushed into the background and forgotten.

I am not much of a movie goer anymore, I will wait 10-12 months and it will show up on the sat channels.
10-12 months? yikes... I watch movies weeks before they're even released in theaters. thanks to torrents and tekksavvy ;)
 

guelph

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Ken Taylor got the heros welcome when he came back to Canada, but it was a CIA op that got the Americans out.
You obviously did not read what Ken Taylor had to say about it. CIA was junior partner in the operation
 

fun-guy

Executive Senior Member
Jun 29, 2005
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I ended up seeing Argo and it's a good film.

But I also saw Lincoln and it's a GREAT film.

I can't imagine that Argo would beat out Lincoln unless there is some sort of anti-Spielberg thing happening in Hollywood.
As I said I disagree, found Argo much more entertaining than Lincoln, it had me more engaged throughout the entire firm, whereas there were some dead spots in Lincoln, but hey, we all have opinions, so let's see what happens at the Oscars. So far, Argo is two for two, going for the trifecta. Hmmm, maybe that's a good omen.

btw, what anti-Spielberg thing might be happening? Why would that be? Haven't heard anything, do you know something?
 

IM469

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Jul 5, 2012
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Ken Taylor got the heros welcome when he came back to Canada, but it was a CIA op that got the Americans out.
Ben Afflict got some kickback when he first showed the film at the Toronto International Film Festival as in the film the role of the Canadians was dismissed as ' Hey, let's let the Canadians take all the credit even though we were the real heroes'. In the post credits, he changed it to acknowledge that Canadians did lend assistance that kept the Americans out of the Iran hands.

The Canadians took a huge personal risk both in housing and in supplying the Canadian passports for the Americans. I know it's just a movie but for 98% of the Americans, this is a history lesson not just a movie.

I found it interesting that the beginning of the movie starts sympathetic to the revolution pointing out that the US & Britain overthrew a legitimate government and supported the government for the Shah who took all the money, threw is people into poverty while holding power by killing and torturing their citizens.
 

james t kirk

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Aug 17, 2001
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As I said I disagree, found Argo much more entertaining than Lincoln, it had me more engaged throughout the entire firm, whereas there were some dead spots in Lincoln, but hey, we all have opinions, so let's see what happens at the Oscars. So far, Argo is two for two, going for the trifecta. Hmmm, maybe that's a good omen.

btw, what anti-Spielberg thing might be happening? Why would that be? Haven't heard anything, do you know something?
Lincoln had me tearing up, angry, laughing, and it had me marvelling. Argo was just another hollywood flick.

As far as "anti-Spielberg bias" - I have no information no, but sometimes when a guy gets too big for his britches, we humans like to bring him down a peg or two. Spielberg is basically Hollywood royalty. He has demonstrated that he can make just about any kind of film from Jaws, to ET, to Saving Private Ryan, to Schindler's List.

Saving Private Ryan was the odds on favourite to win "Best Picture" in 1999 but lost to "Shakespeare in Love"

Really?

Shakespeare in Love? A pseudo chick flick won best pic?

Maybe "the Academy" thought "fuck Spielberg he's had enough glory"

Just me speculating is all
 

Jennifer_

New member
Lincoln had me tearing up, angry, laughing, and it had me marvelling. Argo was just another hollywood flick.

As far as "anti-Spielberg bias" - I have no information no, but sometimes when a guy gets too big for his britches, we humans like to bring him down a peg or two. Spielberg is basically Hollywood royalty. He has demonstrated that he can make just about any kind of film from Jaws, to ET, to Saving Private Ryan, to Schindler's List.

Saving Private Ryan was the odds on favourite to win "Best Picture" in 1999 but lost to "Shakespeare in Love"

Really?

Shakespeare in Love? A pseudo chick flick won best pic?

Maybe "the Academy" thought "fuck Spielberg he's had enough glory"

Just me speculating is all
don't diss Shakespeare In Love ~ my all-time favourite movie.... :p

Despite the fact that I'm dying to see both Argo and Lincon, I haven't yet.

I will say though that "Silverlinings Playbook" was excellent and could potentially prove to be a bit of a dark horse with the Oscars....
 

Petzel

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Jul 4, 2011
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Vaughan
Ben Afflict got some kickback when he first showed the film at the Toronto International Film Festival as in the film the role of the Canadians was dismissed as ' Hey, let's let the Canadians take all the credit even though we were the real heroes'. In the post credits, he changed it to acknowledge that Canadians did lend assistance that kept the Americans out of the Iran hands.

The Canadians took a huge personal risk both in housing and in supplying the Canadian passports for the Americans. I know it's just a movie but for 98% of the Americans, this is a history lesson not just a movie.

I found it interesting that the beginning of the movie starts sympathetic to the revolution pointing out that the US & Britain overthrew a legitimate government and supported the government for the Shah who took all the money, threw is people into poverty while holding power by killing and torturing their citizens.
Ben Affleck, not Afflict.
 

Aardvark154

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Jan 19, 2006
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Only in the book and movie. The book was written by the CIA operative
As the title of the Series about the Discovery of Insulin accurately put it there is "Glory Enough for All." Those at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran were hero's so was Bob Mendez.
 

Don Draper

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Nov 24, 2009
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don't diss Shakespeare In Love ~ my all-time favourite movie.... :p

Despite the fact that I'm dying to see both Argo and Lincon, I haven't yet.

I will say though that "Silverlinings Playbook" was excellent and could potentially prove to be a bit of a dark horse with the Oscars....
Jenn, you know I luv ya but "Shakespeare in Love" winning the Best Picture Oscar over "Saving Private Ryan"......Eesh!!!!

"Argo" turned into melodrama and it was way too forced and calculated by the end. This is Affleck using the same formula from the last 20 minutes of "The Sound of Music". It's no wonder he didn't get a Director nomination.

"Lincoln" is elegant and understated. DD Lewis told Spielberg he wasn't interested in making a 'Spielberg' film about Abraham Lincoln. Lucky for us he listened.

I've seen all 9 Best Picture nominees now. I like to do so before the awards ceremony. Hands down, the Best Film this year is "Beasts of the Southern Wild". Brilliant, daring and absolutely emotionally engaging, its a true gem.

With a budget of $1.8 million and an Indie, it hasn't got a chance in hell of winning. It will get noticed now though and the director, Behn Zeitlin, will have new doors opened to him.

Trust me and check it out.

Especially you Jenn.
 
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