Movie Review - Argo
I saw Argo tonight. I think it deserves to win best movie, director, screenplay, and maybe more.
Perhaps - to me - its most impressive feat might just be making the seventies look good. I've often put down the seventies and being a child of that era. But this film, about events surrounding the hostage crisis in January 1980, paints an accurate picture of the time. It is a movie made in the style of the best films of that time. I don't know how - of all people - Ben Affleck pulled this off, but I don't think there's a wrong step in the whole film.
Besides simply being compelling it reminded me of where I was in January 1980, studying in Israel having just graduated from high school. My group of 30 kids spent a week in Shiloh voluntarily working on an archaeological gig. I remember eating with an Israeli family there on Shabbos. It was right after the failed US hostage rescue attempt, and our cocky host asked me and my friend Howie if we weren't embarrassed to be from the United States. Memories.
Most people in the theater will know the story's outcome beforehand and yet will still be kept in suspense. That's a sign of masterful movie making. In the full theater tonight the crowd broke in applause three times. I'm saving my applause for Oscar season when I predict you'll be hearing a lot about this great film.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 11:59 PM
2 Comments:
Good review Neil. Affleck's direction worked and I like how he included so much detail and fun into the 70's look, but the last act just didn't have that suspense going for me as much as I would have liked. I think it sucks more just because you know what the true story is, and you sort of lose all of the tension this movie is striving for so much.
One man one vote. I hear you but it worked for me.
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