Argo (4K Ultra HD) [Blu-ray] [2012]

Fantastic Acting by the whole cast, Great Direction and some superb photography. This really is a brilliant story and the film keeps you on the edge right to the end. Highly recommended with a bottle of Iranian red on the side. Loved it, a great watch.

What a brilliant film based on a real story.

I am not interested in the techno novelty of UV copy and "living in the cloud" but I bought this DVD because I was very much interested in revisiting the historical event that was the invasion of the American embassy in Teheran in 1979, and how it ended with dirty political dealings amidst conservative/democratic infighting for that year's presidential campaign. The film touches the subject lightly, shows with great realism (even using TV newsreel inserts) the taking of the embassy by a mass of anti-American demonstrators. I was touched by a couple of sentences heard in the mouth of an Iranian Taliban woman... because today I am able to identify with it - as the intervening years made me cynical in relation to Western propaganda, and because now it's certain that the Taliban regime was about to erase some women's rights that the Shah's regime had accorded them - scientific education one of them... The DVD has an extra with interviews with the six persons who managed to take refuge in the Canadian Embassy, and their view of the CIA agent who (fighting against his own counter-orders) managed to accomplish his mission to extradite them. I consider the high value of this document enough to compensate my view of the movie itself as "just another political thriller" - well told, mind you. As entertainment alone, the movie itself is very good, with believable characters and crisply told story, with a couple of turnabouts that will surprise those less familiar with the historical facts.

One of the best films ever! A rock solid cast all around.

This is a thriller of the race-against-time variety. While it is based on a true story, I do not know how accurately the story is portrayed. Ben Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who is sent into Iran in 1980 to free 6 US diplomats, who, their own embassy having been overrun by revolutionaries, have escaped and been given temporary asylum at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran. Before departing for Iran to carry out the rescue, Mendez must come up with a cover for himself and the six diplomats. It is decided that they are to play a scouting party looking for film locations for a sci-fi adventure film called Argo, hence the title of this film. As Mendez admits to his bosses, although his idea is a bad idea, it is still the best of a bad lot. And so, the rescue gets under way……… This film is by the numbers, employing many of the usual devices to stall the escapers and maintain the tension to keep the viewer hooked. While these devices were predictable (if you have seen enough thrillers of this type, that is) I still enjoyed the film. I have not seen many Ben Affleck films, but in those I have seen he plays quiet, serious men who rarely smile, as he does here. At the beginning of the film this worked particularly well when contrasted with the larger-than-life characters played by John Goodman and Alan Arkin. Some of the earlier scenes were really quite humorous. However, as well as enjoying the humour in these scenes, I also got the strong sense that Goodman and Arkin are “old school” actors. By that I mean that they are much better actors than their younger colleague, Affleck. This did not surprise me. Acting, if you view it as a form of communication, is, like literacy/articulacy levels generally, going downhill. This was brought home to me about 10 years ago when I was watching an awards ceremony on tv. The nominations were being read out by younger actors, maybe in their late 20s and 30s. They mumbled, they laughed a lot, and generally one could not make out much of what they were saying. Their attention was not on delivering lines to their audience, not on communicating with their audience as it ought to have been. Their attention was on themselves instead. In marked contrast, however, when actor Christopher Lee was awarded a major prize (a lifetime’s achievement award, I think) and he gave his acceptance speech, his delivery was “old school”. His diction, his voice projection, his ability to deliver his lines clearly and audibly, was superb. He held the stage. In other words, he was a better actor because he had been trained in the days before actor training had also gone downhill. For similar reasons, Affleck does not have the same on-screen presence as the older actors. (Unfortunately, the general incoherence of presenters, especially radio presenters, is becoming standard. The voice of the presenter may go up and down in volume, for example, such that one only hears the first part of what they are saying before they drop their voice to the level of a whisper.) As well as illustrating different standards in acting, the film did raise one of two questions. At the very beginning of the film, we see the US Embassy in Tehran surrounded by an angry mob of revolutionaries carrying banners. Inside, the diplomats are destroying as many sensitive documents and smashing as many computers and communications equipment as they can. I do not know if this really happened, but finally one of the diplomats decides, in his panic, to go outside and try to “reason” with the mob. Was one of the diplomats really so stupid as to think he could reason with an angry, hostile mob? Anyone with any sense would have known that the mob was beyond reason. And, thanks to this diplomat, it inevitably took the opportunity handed to it on a plate to invade the embassy and capture its staff. Did someone really open the door to the baying mob or is this sloppy screenwriting? At the end of the film, much is made of the "cooperation" between Canada and the US in organising the escape. Cooperation? That is propaganda. My response to that nonsense is that if nations cooperated in the first place, then there would not have been a revolution in Iran and there would have been no need to mount a dangerous rescue mission. In short, if nations cooperated instead of competing with each other, then the world would be a peaceful place. Some of these films really do spout the most awful tripe. That said, why did Canada shelter the US diplomats, and at considerable risk to its own diplomatic staff? Far from being “cooperative”, perhaps Canada had decided that snubbing its bigger, much more powerful North American neighbour would not have been in its best interests. In other words, Canada, for fear of repercussions, deemed it necessary to keep the US sweet by aiding its escapees. Sentimental tripe and bad judgement on behalf of the diplomat notwithstanding, I enjoyed this film and will give it 5 stars.

A great film as such, with some fabulous dialogue and one liners. It's just not very accurate, and that's a shame, as it claims to recount an important part of history. Notably, it downplays or even negates the considerable support the Americans received from the Canadians, British and other allies, who went out of their way to provide alternate exit routes should it come to that. The film of course also overcooks American heroism, and the adversaries are mostly reduced to a dumb, aggressive, shouting mob. Reality is more complicated than that. And way more interesting!

Argo is a film based on the true story of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, when six fugitive American democratic personnel need to be extracted during the revolution. Ben Affleck (who also directs and co-produces with George Clooney) stars as CIA exfiltration agent Tony Mendez, who devises a plan to get the six out of the house of the Canadian ambassador (where they have been hiding since escaping from the embassy when it was taken) by concocting a fake film that is to be shot in Iran. Helped by Hollywood players John Chambers (John Goodman) and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), they set up the backdrop of a film scout trip to Iran for their sci-fi movie Argo. Fake Canadian passports are produced for the six, played with great expertise by Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea Duvall, Scoot Mcnairy, Christopher Denham and Kerry Bishe, who have to learn their new identites as film crew scouts in two days. The film is very convincing and you find yourself holding your breath and rooting for the six right until the end. I especially like that the film has been given a truthful slant, rather than trying to over-dramatise what is already a wonderful human interest story. It is a very tense drama with touches of humour provided by the 'Hollywood' element and I would highly recommend you see it. Tagline: 'The movie was fake. The mission was real.' 8.5/10

No me esperaba la calidad de la edicion Argo, en la caja, viene el Blu-Ray por un lado, y por otro, una especie de "portafolio" con el simbolo de la CIA y que dice que está "desclasificado". Al abrirlo podemos encontrarnos: - Un libro en alemán con fotos de la película y descripciones(no se alemán, pero la calidad y el tacto del libreto merecen la pena). - Un poster de la pelicula que sale en la película - Un mapa que incluye fotos y localizaciones de la pelicula. - Tarjeta identificativa del protagonista(me llevé una sorpresa con ella), pensé que iba a ser de papel o de cartón, pero no, es una tarjeta bien plastificada y con los datos del protagonista de la pelicula. En la caja que contiene la pelicula, vienen dos discos en BR. Recomiendo encarecidamente su compra(a ser posible en Español), porque esta edición merece muchisimo la pena. Para mi es un acierto y un "must have".

C'est un thriller mené habilement, il est captivant. Il parvient à allier tension, drame et humour avec brio. La réalisation de Ben Affleck est impeccable, capturant l'atmosphère des années 1970 tout en restant fidèle aux événements historiques. C'est aussi une réflexion poignante sur le courage et la diplomatie. J'ai beaucoup aimé ce film et je le recommande pour les amateurs de thriller.

Great service and quality product.

Ho voluto iniziare questa recensione citando la famosa frase degli Oscar perchè questo film, eccellente ma non certo il classico perfetto accademico, a mio parere ha meritato alla grande il premio di miglior film per il suo importante contenuto. Parlare oggi di Iran significa richiamare alla mente uno Stato governato da personaggi pericolosi, un Paese la cui popolazione non la si conosce ma che si tende ad assimilare agli uomini di potere, una Nazione dall'apparenza arretrata, stereotipo della "patria di cammelli". E, su tutti, nemico giurato dell'occidente. La realtà è ben diversa. Se decidere di guardare questo film scoprirete un paese vittima dei giochi di potere, vittima degli interessi internazionali imperniati sulle enormi riserve petrolifere che esso possiede, vittima dell'assolutismo (teocratico e non). Guardate con grande attenzione l'intro, magistrale: in quei pochi minuti di parole e immagini vi viene consegnata la chiave per capire un Paese, un paese che non è la patria di sabbia e cammelli come si può pensare, ma luogo ben più occidentale di quanto si creda. E il film, all'interno della bella e appassionante spy-story (vera) vi mostrerà le varie facce del popolo iraniano. Non siate superficiali nel guardarlo, immergetevi nelle atmosfere, nei personaggi. Divertitevi con la spy story e le gag su Hollywood, ma non fermatevi a questo! E' bellissimo poi che sia un'americano ad aver dato vita ad un film così, perchè non è il solito panegirico degli USA. Certo, le stelle e strisce ci fanno di massima una bella figuara, ma non mancano le frecciatine (si veda la scena del Bazaar). Divertentissima (ma anche questa non certo supergficiale) la satira su Hollywood e lo Star System. Potrei scrivere ancora tantissimo su questo film, ma non voglio esagerare. Comprate il BD: è di grande qualità video e audio (beh, manca l'italiano lossless, peccato) e vi metterete in cineteca un capolavoro da vedere, rivedere e conservare.

La edición francesa para coleccionistas de Argo viene tanto en idioma Español, como con subtitulos para la película normal, en versión extendida y extras. El libro viene en Francés y los demas bonus (cartel peli falsa, identificación CIA..) en ingles. Vale la pena totalmente, es un precio bastante accequible para todo lo que trae y el libro en frances se comprensa con todo lod emás que trae. Además no creo que salga en España. Buena compra y genial servicio de Amazon. De la película nada que decir, peliculón! :)