Argo (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Argo |
| Original title | Argo |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English , Persian |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ben Affleck |
| script | Chris Terrio |
| production | Ben Affleck, George Clooney , Grant Heslov |
| music | Alexandre Desplat |
| camera | Rodrigo Prieto |
| cut | William Goldenberg |
| occupation | |
| |
Argo is an American thriller from 2012 . Directed by Ben Affleck , who also took on the lead role. The plot of the film thematizes the Canadian Caper , a fringe episode of the 1979 hostage-taking in Tehran : the liberation of six US embassy staff who escaped while storming the embassy and with the help of a mimicry - a film that was supposedly to be shot in Iran - around were smuggled out of the country two months after the embassy storm. The script is based on the 2007 Wired Magazine article Escape from Tehran. How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran by journalist Joshuah Bearman .
The film received numerous awards, including three Academy Awards at the 2013 Academy Awards (best film, best adapted screenplay, best editing).
action
The film deals with a fringe episode of the embassy occupation in Tehran at the end of 1979 and the ensuing hostage-taking of 52 embassy employees by Iranian students. The reason for the occupation was the refusal of the US government under Jimmy Carter to extradite Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi , who was staying in the United States for the treatment of his cancer, to the government established by Ayatollah Khomeini in the wake of the Islamic Revolution . In addition to the main problem - the 52 hostages in the hands of the Iranian embassy occupiers and, in general, the strongly anti-American atmosphere in Iran - the US authorities face other, minor problems, in particular the evacuation of other US citizens who have remained in the country . The situation of six embassy employees is particularly tricky. They were able to escape undetected during the storming of the embassy and in the meantime - in constant fear of being discovered - had temporarily found shelter in the residence of the Canadian ambassador.
The focus of the film is the Canadian Caper rescue operation launched by the CIA to free the six people in hiding. After a brief historical outline of the history of Iran, including the role of the United States in the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953, the film gets into the actual plot: the storming of the embassy, the panic of those trapped, the escape of the six employees and, subsequently, the confusion and helplessness of the US authorities who learned of this escape. The actual plot is divided into two roughly equal parts. The first describes the plan, its preparation and how it - in view of the non-existent alternatives - is decided and staged. The plan is to fake a film production, to disguise the six fugitives as Canadian filmmakers looking for exotic locations in Iran, and to fly them out of the country using bogus papers. For this purpose, the CIA agent Mendez, his superiors and the two Hollywood veterans John Chambers ( John Goodman ) and Lester Siegel ( Alan Arkin ) stage a legend that is supposed to achieve one thing above all: to be sufficiently credible for the Iranian authorities. Name of this fake film production: "Argo" - a trashy science fiction story that Mendez came across rather by chance: while watching a television broadcast of the science fiction film The Battle for the Planet of the Apes .
While the first part, after the introductory description of the initial situation, essentially takes place in the USA and is determined by the hope that the deception staged will succeed, the second part takes place primarily in Tehran. The fugitives are at their nerves. Nonetheless, Mendez manages to convince her that playing the prepared film team roles is her only chance to leave the country unscathed. The situation in Iran is portrayed as grim and threatening. The threat culminates in a scene in which Mendez, his "film team" and an accompanying official from the Iranian Ministry of Culture are harassed by an angry crowd in the old town near the bazaar . The climax of the film is a nerve-wracking tug-of-war staged using the thriller at Tehran's airport . The escape finally ends happily - just like the historical model.
Cinematic implementation
The film emphasized the very close reference to the historical event with some dramaturgical elements located on different levels. The element of the increasingly scarce time window is brought to the point by the search for the disappeared - among other things by teenage carpet weavers who put together the shredded documents of the embassy on carpet knitting boards and in this way get pictures of the people in hiding. Another element is the end credits: On the one hand, it describes the events “after” in a condensed form. In split- screen juxtapositions, he also shows film images of events that happened around the embassy occupation, and the corresponding equivalents of real photos - for example the image of a man who was hanged from a crane during the course of the revolution, which is often reproduced in the media . A third element that adds drama is concerns about the action - the alternatives that are being considered (including the deployment of Delta Force special forces, which is quickly dismissed as impractical), or the backsliding by American government agencies some of which jeopardize the successful completion of the campaign. Another element is the need for secrecy. In order not to endanger the lives of the remaining hostages and to avoid diplomatic entanglements, the action was kept secret for many years. Mendez as the most important agent in the implementation initially only received an unofficial award. Only years later was this made public by the CIA.
background
With a production budget of $ 44.5 million, most of the film was shot in the United States. The exterior shots of the US embassy were shot in West Hills , a district of Los Angeles . The scenes that take place at Tehran Airport in the film were recorded at Ontario Airport . Only a few exterior shots were shot in Istanbul , Turkey , for the sake of greater authenticity , although Mendez is then shown entering the Sultan Ahmed Mosque while the subsequent meeting takes place in the Hagia Sophia . The film premiered on August 31, 2012 at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado . The film opened in cinemas in Germany and Austria on November 8, 2012.
The Iranian government condemned the production of the film and its awarding with various prizes as politically motivated. She sees the film as a distortion of history. On March 11, 2013, the Iranian news agency Mehr News Agency reported that Iran would sue the three producers of the film, Grant Heslov , Ben Affleck and George Clooney . A French lawyer was hired to prepare a lawsuit, the exact content of which was not given.
German dubbed version
The German dubbing was done at FFS Film- & Fernseh-Synchron in Berlin . The dialogue book was written by Frank Schaff and Klaus Bickert , and Frank Schaff directed the dubbing .
Reviews
In the US press, Argo received almost exclusively positive reviews, in the German-language press it was mixed. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Spiegel Online and other media rated the thriller element and the comic situation in the execution of the film fake particularly positive. The Tagesspiegel wrote: “In 'Argo' comedy and political thriller combine to create an exciting movie. The cynicism of the film industry and the seriousness of the political actors are very effective, and the Hollywood business of the seventies appears as if covered with a veil of nostalgia. "
The way in which the film dealt with historical facts was not popular everywhere. Some media criticized the fact that it was too close to the official US government perspective, while others were vague about individual aspects and made false compromises. The critic Susan Vahabzadeh complained in the Süddeutsche Zeitung above all about the selective handling of the historical framework events, which was advantageous in the sense of the Carter government: “It's all based on real history, and the film goes with it, as funny and exciting it is , something strange about. About the operation, which is actually at issue here and for which the Canadians took the fame back then, you only know what the real Mendez says, back then it was secret. But other things are uncomfortably known: For example, that Carter started Operation Eagle Claw at the end of April 1980 - a disastrously unsuccessful rescue attempt with airplanes and helicopters, in which not only some soldiers were killed, but also CIA documents were left behind in a lubricated machine. Only once is it mentioned in passing in 'Argo' that an attempt at liberation is planned. "
The Berliner Zeitung also noted critical aspects : “Ben Affleck produced 'Argo' together with Hollywood's left fringe, i.e. George Clooney and Grant Heslov . Across New Zealand had the director, incidentally, with a press conference to apologize because the film briefly mentioned that the island at that time denied the refuge of the six people in hiding. The facts, not the lies, make most of the problems here. ” Finally, in its review, the daily newspaper criticizes the problematic aspect of the cooperation between the Hollywood film industry and the US secret services - a combination that by no means focuses on the Argo fake have limited. From various quarters, such as the US historian Juan Cole or the Huffington Post , the stereotypical and purely negative portrayal of the Iranian people was criticized and the lack of explanation of the historical context was criticized.
Awards
At the Hollywood Film Festival in late October 2012, the acting ensemble was awarded a prize. In early December 2012, the National Board of Review Awards presented a special award for director Ben Affleck. At the award ceremony of the Critics' Choice Movie Awards 2013 on January 10, 2013, the film, which was nominated in seven categories, was recognized by the critics with the award for best film and best director. Argo was nominated for the 2013 Golden Globe Award in five categories : Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Arkin), Best Screenplay, and Best Score . The film and Affleck as best director won the awards. In the same year, seven nominations for the British Academy Film Award followed , in which film, direction and editing were also awarded, as well as the French César in the category Best Foreign Film . Affleck also won the Directors Guild of America Award for directing , while the film won the Producers Guild of America Award . In addition, the film won the 2012 Satellite Award for best film music.
Argo was nominated for the Oscar 2013 in seven categories and won the awards for Best Picture , Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing .
Differences from reality
Although Argo came up with the claim to document a historical event, the filmmakers allowed themselves a number of the usual deviations and exaggerations in fictional adaptations - points that were also taken up by the media and critics after the publication. In contrast to the dramatized form shown in the film, the group of diplomats was probably never in immediate danger:
- In the film, the diplomats in hiding - Mark and Cora Lijek, Bob Anders, Lee Schatz, and Joe and Kathy Stafford - are forced to live together at the Canadian ambassador's residence the entire time. In reality, after a few nights, one of them on British property, the group had split up and lived in Ambassador Ken Taylor's house and in the house of John Sheardown, another Canadian diplomat. “It is not true that we could never go outside. John Sheardown's house had a courtyard with a garden and we could move around freely there ”(Mark Lijek).
- In the film, the diplomats are under great time pressure to find a solution to their situation because the Canadian embassy is due to be abandoned in a few days. In reality there was no such time pressure because the Canadian embassy was not due to close until after the diplomats left Iran.
- The tour of the bazaar intended as a filming location, organized by an employee of the Iranian Ministry of Culture for the supposed Canadian film crew, during which the group was (ultimately correctly) mistaken for Americans and harassed by angry locals, never took place.
- In the film, the mission by the Carter administration on the eve of the planned departure is broken off as too risky, whereby the diplomats are ultimately to be sacrificed (analogously: "If they are caught and executed in the country, the Iranians are the bad guys. If they are at the airport exposed to this action, we are the disgraced. "). Mendez, who feels responsible for these people's lives because they trust him, decides to go ahead with the action anyway. In fact, Carter only delayed the mission by 30 minutes, and that was before Mendez left Europe for Iran.
- Because the flight reservations were canceled due to the cancellation of the campaign, the group is initially unable to check in at the airport in Tehran; The reservations only appear again in the system when the action is re-authorized at the last minute and the relevant information is sent to the airline. In reality, Ambassador Taylor's wife, Pat, had pre-purchased three sets of plane tickets from three different airlines and made reservations without any problem.
- When CIA colleagues at headquarters learn in the film that Mendez still wants to go through with the operation, they desperately try to get President Carter to re-authorize the mission so that the flight reservations can be reactivated before the group at the airport gets into serious trouble comes. A CIA agent got a switchboard operator in the White House to put him through to Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan by posing as an employee of the school of Jordan's children. In reality, Jordan was unmarried and had no children at the time.
- In the film, the group is still checked at the gate by suspicious members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard after they successfully passed passport control by the official officials. The well-prepared film crew story comes to the rescue (script, prepared storyboards, press reports from American trade magazines, etc.). The local commander is only convinced when a call to Hollywood confirms the existence of the production company and film project. In reality, there was no confrontation with security at the airport gate.
- In the film, the Iranians finally succeed in identifying the diplomats by comparing the successfully reconstructed photos from the US embassy and secretly taken photos of the group on the occasion of the bazaar tour. The information arrives at the Revolutionary Guard at the airport as the plane is just starting to take off. Armed members of the Revolutionary Guards then tried to stop the machine from moving jeeps before it took off. In reality there was no chase on the runway. Mark Lijek described it this way: “Fortunately, there were only a few Revolutionary Guards there. That was also the reason why we chose a flight at 5:30 in the morning. Even they weren't excited enough to get up that early. The truth is, the officers barely looked at us and we could walk normally. We boarded the plane to Zurich and were taken to the US embassy in Bern immediately upon arrival. Everything was straightforward. "
In addition to this dramaturgical exaggeration, the scenery of the legend, which was built for the liberation action, differs in some details from the real events:
- The lead role of producer Lester Siegel, played by Alan Arkin, is fictional.
- In the film, Mendez discovers the script with the title "Argo". In reality the script was called "Lord of Light" and was based on the book of the same name by Roger Zelazny . The title was changed to "Argo" by the CIA.
- Comic book artist Jack Kirby did not design the storyboard for bogus CIA film production. A few years before the hostage-taking in Iran there had been a real attempt to film "Lord of Light". Kirby had created the storyboards for this.
Web links
- Official website
- Argo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Argo at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Argo at Metacritic (English)
- Argo in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Argo . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2012 (PDF; test number: 135 556 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Argo . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ How Accurate Is Argo? , David Haglund, Slate online magazine , October 9, 2012
- ↑ How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran , Joshuah Bearman, Wired Magazine, April 24, 2007 (Eng.)
- ↑ a b "Argo" by Ben Affleck , hr-online, November 9, 2012
- ↑ Affleck starts shooting 'Argo' film in LA , upi.com, September 12, 2011 (Eng.)
- ↑ Argo , boxofficemojo.com, accessed November 10, 2012
- ↑ Affleck, Ben: Argo. Behind the Scenes: Argo: Absolute Authenticity. USA 2012.
- ↑ a b c d Westfälische Nachrichten : Iran wants to sue “Argo” , Kultur, Teheran, dpa , March 13, 2013
- ↑ a b c Argo. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on April 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Argo at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ^ True fiction , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, accessed November 10, 2012
- ↑ Film for your life! , David Kleingers, Spiegel Online, November 7, 2012
- ^ The Teheran Trick , Martin Schwickert, Tagesspiegel, November 6, 2012
- ^ Mission Hollywood , Susan Vahabzadeh, Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 8, 2012
- ↑ Who lies better, Hollywood or the CIA? , Anke Westphal, Berliner Zeitung, November 6, 2011
- ↑ The curious end of the dream factory , Andreas Busche, daily newspaper, November 7, 2012
- ↑ http://www.juancole.com/2013/02/orientalism-upsets-iranians.html “Argo” as Orientalism and why it Upsets Iranians , Juan Cole
- ↑ Ben Affleck's Argo and the Problem With Viewing Iran Through a Narrow Lens In: The Huffington Post
- ↑ a b Vincent Dowd: BBC News - Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film . Bbc.co.uk. January 14, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
- ↑ Douglas Martin: John Sheardown, Canadian Who Sheltered Americans in Tehran, Dies at 88 . In: New York Times , January 4, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
- ↑ BBC News - Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film. Dowd, Vincent, Bbc.co.uk. February 25, 2013
- ↑ a b c Ben Affleck rewrites history , Johnson, Brian D., September 12, 2012 (Eng.)
- ↑ a b c Ken Taylor's Hollywood ending: Affleck alters postscript to 'Argo' , Knelman, Martin, Toronto Star, September 19, 2012 (Eng.)
- ^ Mendez, Antonio / Baglio, Matt: Argo. How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled off the most audacious Rescue in History. New York 2012.
- ↑ “BBC News - Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film” , Dowd, Vincent, Bbc.co.uk. February 25, 2013
- ↑ Knelman, Martin: Argo snub sparked bromance between Ken Taylor and Ben Affleck. Retrieved October 6, 2018 .
- ^ A b Antonio J. Mendez : CIA Goes Hollywood: A Classic Case of Deception . In: Central Intelligence Agency (Ed.): Studies in Intelligence . Winter 1999-2000. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
- ^ Maureen Dowd: The Oscar for Best Fabrication , New York Times. February 16, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
- ↑ Yukon Damov: Diplomats in Iranian hostage crisis discuss Argo: Spoiler alert: Hollywood fudged the facts , The Newspaper . November 16, 2012. Archived from the original on November 17, 2012 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . "Wednesday night's conversation between former diplomats Robert Anders and Michael Shenstone, hosted by the US Consulate and the University of Toronto International Relations Society, was an exercise in displaying Hollywood's manipulation of historical reality."
- ↑ 19 Photos: Tony Mendez, clandestine CIA hero of Ben Affleck's 'Argo,' reveals the real story behind film smash . Washington Times. October 10, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ↑ How Accurate Is Argo? , David Haglund, Slate online magazine , October 9, 2012
- ↑ How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran , Joshuah Bearman, Wired Magazine, April 24, 2007 (Eng.)
- ↑ a b Joshuah Bearman: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran . In: Wired . 81 April 24 , 2007.
- ↑ a b Higgins, Bill; Kit, Borys. "ARGO'S ODD HOLLYWOOD HISTORY." Hollywood Reporter . 05 Oct 2012: 64th eLibrary. Web. 01 Mar 2013.
