Movie Review SSJ

Argo” is a classic historical thriller directed by the famous American actor and director Ben Affleck, which was released in 2012. Based on a true story, the film recreates the little-known story of the hostage crisis in the late 1970s through a faux-documentary approach. The film won three awards at the 85th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay for its excellent artistic presentation, including excellent camera language and editing techniques.

The film tells the story of November 4, 1979, when Iranian revolutionary forces stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took the embassy staff hostage. More than 50 people were taken hostage, but six escaped and went into hiding at the home of Ken Taylo, the Canadian ambassador to Iran, and CIA executive Jack O’Donnell approached expert Tony Mendez to help bring the six back to the United States.

After discussion, the CIA decided to take Tony’s approach and under the guise of making a movie, Tony went to Iran to bring back the six men. So he went to Iran as a producer with a script and various props, found the six people, and began the story of the arduous road to escape Tehran.

The film director Ben Affleck in the film shows its solid and control of the camera scheduling ability, from the beginning of the film hostage taking tension manufacturing, and then the final CIA agents into Iran to take away the hostages process of strong sense of reality, all show the film outstanding faux documentary standards. For director Ben Affleck, the balance of complexity and fluidity of the whole story is crucial to tell this profound subject. Therefore, the humor and seriousness of the narrative alternate with each other under the camera of the film, in order to promote the fluidity and watchability of the story better.

In terms of script polishing, it is easy to see that the neatness and completion of the creation are quite high. The director did not use a flashy narrative to adapt the story, but based on the conventional story structure and framework, looking for every plot point that can create conflict and surprise in the framework. And these plot points of the string is just right in the story to form a repeated ups and downs in the emotional curve. It can be said that Ben Affleck’s control of the film’s pacing is accurate and accurate, facing the rescue story between a CIA agent and six hostages, the director has constructed a large story space between the external conflict and internal conflict.

On the one hand, the film shows the encounter and game between the Iranian officials and the American undercover team, through a very oppressive sense of repeated probing and answers, and the tension and breathlessness created by the dim tones make the main conflict that brings the film to its climax explode in silence, which is a very clever way of shooting.

On the other hand, director Ben Affleck calmly shows the anxiety, conflict and disagreement within the six hostages. This extreme tension between internal controversy and external pressure coexists to coordinate and guide the audience’s emotional transformation.

Argo” is a film of great significance to Ben Affleck, who was nominated for Best Picture at several international film festivals and won the Best Director award at the 70th Golden Globe Awards, a success story for Ben Affleck as an actor and director.

It must be said that Ben Affleck not only contributed calm, introspective and restrained acting in the film, but also proved his understanding and perception of camera language well. It can be said that “Argo”, a film based on a real subject, is not only an outstanding work of art, but more importantly, it reopens the little-known secrets and stories behind the hostage incident of the last century.