What are your thoughts on the lens choices within this film? Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Have a great weekend!

Fun fact, Jack Kirby, the king of superhero comics, drew the real Argo stuff back in the day. Like he designed stuff for it.

Sadly Tony Mendez passed away in 2019. His story is pretty remarkable. He wrote a memoir of his life in the CIA called "Master of Disguise". I highly recommend it.

I was born in 1971, and the Iran hostage crisis is the first world event I consciously remember (and I lived in a house of news junkies). I cannot overstate how this story overtook the news throughout 1979/1980. The tragedy of the failed rescue operation contributed to Carter’s re-election loss. They waited until the day that Reagan was inaugurated in 81 to let them go, just as a final FU to Carter. And when they came home, it was a big damn deal.

Heyyy, have you ever seen The Kings Speech staring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush? You owe it to yourself to see it. It was the first time in my life that the audience spontaneously applauded at the close of the final scene. I felt so weird when I jumped up to clap but then realized a bunch of people in front of me did as well, but the whole theater applauded. I can’t explain exactly why or what it was about it but it was pretty incredible.

Winner of 3 Oscars including Best Picture! It was the first and only real life spy film to win an Oscar.

Despite the historical innacuracies, this film had me on the edge of my seat when it came out! I think about what could been considering Affleck was set to direct his own Batman film.

Historical drama films like these are easily one of my favourite “genres” if you will. There’s something about “knowing/seeing” the people behind the history that makes it feel so tangible, like you’re right there with them witnessing an extraordinary moment in human history, no matter how big or how small.

As a Canadian who was born in 1968. I will admit, I really did enjoy this movie when I finally watched it. I recall, as a young boy the news stories about the Iranian US Hostage situation over in the Middle East on TV and Radio. The idea that "Canada helped out of the USA, which we have been intimidated my whole life"...that was the context when I finally saw this movie. I was impressed with how 70's they made the actors looking like. The photos, which were in the paper, they nailed the likeness so well. I have never flown in my life so I don't know the stress or structure of booking a commercial flight. So I found the "tension" of the last scene a little "forced". Still, I learned more than the "news" gave me of the situation. It seems plausible that's how it really happened. As far as peoples character and love for their jobs. Hey son...when you were a "kid" in the 70's, with no Internet and the biggest "tech" was a liquid crystal calculator... People had more character. People cared more. People were "innocent" to Government corruption in North America. I know the CIA messed around in the Middle East so much that they caused this situation in the first place. I had an Iranian friend from Grade School because we were too "innocent" to be bothered by politics. It's a point of "pride" for Canada and well...frankly, it reminds me of how simple life was back in 1979...and I had finally just seen Star Wars in the movie theatre, after it was released "again" for the 2nd time up here in Canadian movie theatres. A simpler time when movies were Magic...and still are for myself. A source of escapism and dreams. Those last scenes with Star Wars action figures was the perfect ending to this Real tale that used SF elements to solve a hostage situation. Thank You James for reacting to this movie. Peace.

Abraham Lincoln, not only a vampire hunter but he also moonlight's for the CIA 😂

The last minutes at the airport are one of the best examples to create tension and suspense with simply solid editing

Such a great movie - so glad you watched it! 👏👏👏

I saw this in the theater when it was released and was blown away by it. I’ve got no problem with this film winning Best Picture, particularly when it came to what it was nominated against. This is a great reaction James, hope you’re doing well. Take care!

This movie, more than most others, had me just riveted and on the edge of my seat. Knowing that this really happened (with liberties) is just nuts. The bravery of everyone involved in pulling this extraction off is off the charts. And coming down to seconds as it did at the airport... whoo.

For editing, you should check out Oliver Stone's "JFK." It's not only the pinnacle of "conspiracy" filmmaking, it's also one of the best edited stories I've ever seen. There's so many people, things, places, dates, etc. that the only way for it to remain coherent is for the editing to be next level (not to mention John Williams' score).

I worked as the utility sound tech under mixer and boom operator, José Antonio Garcia and Jonathon Fuh, for The Avengers right before they worked on this movie. They were nominated for an Oscar for best sound mixer but were beat out by the guys from Les Miserable. I remember they used an Aaton for sound recording cuz it reminded José of the Nagra sound recorder from back in the day. They were true professionals and It was an unforgettable experience.

I truly appreciate you doing this reaction video for this movie James VS Cinema. Thank you for doing this.

Saw this one in theatres! Great movie! I still think "The Town" and "Gone Baby Gone" are Ben Affleck's best directed films! "Gone Baby Gone" is particularly underrated considering how AMAZING the script is but Argo is definitely among his best works as well! Great reaction bro!

The emotions on your face when their airplane left Iranian airspace... beautiful. Thank you for always being so open, I know I cried in the theater when I first watched it.

Ben Affleck is such a good director in my opinion. The Town is one of my favorite heist movies and this movie is fantastic. Live By Night was not as well received by critics but I think he did a great job with it and well worth a watch. Love watching these reactions you are a joy truly and I always look forward to seeing what you will watch next👌🏽😊💯

You should react to the other movies Affleck directed, especially The Town (fantastic heist movie, very indebted to Heat but with its own spin) and also Gone Baby Gone, his directorial debut, an incredible thriller movie with lots of twists and great performances

He’s a fabulous director AND writer. Him and Matt Damon wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. I’m new to your channel, but that’s an amazing movie if you haven’t seen it already.

I was in the Army when the Iran hostage crisis was going on. I recall being horrified that Time magazine ran on its cover a picture of one of the helicopter pilots of the failed hostage rescue attempt, his face charred black from the fire and his name on the helmet. We were furious for the family. Some years later, I was attending a training in Fort Huachuca, Arizona where we got the opportunity to listen to a lecture by one of the released hostages - an Army colonel who was put on the military lecture circuit to talk about his experience. He said that the hostages were always paired up in a room with another hostage, but the Iranians kept changing them around, so you often had a different roommate. One place that was not guarded was the bathroom, since the Iranians were intensely private about bodily functions. So the hostages could talk for short spaces privately there. One night, he and his roommate had bedded down on the floor for the night with an armed guard at the open door. His roommate at one point loudly passed gas, and they saw the look of utter disgust on the guard's face. The colonel told us, "From then on, it was chemical warfare."

This movie and uncut gems has the same elevating intensity to them. Great reaction 👍🏾

This and The Town showcase how good Ben Affleck is as a director. The Town is my favourite of his! Ben Affleck best performance has to be in The Way Back, basically portraying his inner demons! Hope you react to it eventually! He was snubbed for the Oscar that year!

Gone Girl was directed by David Fincher

Watch "Touch of Evil" (1958) - the opening shot will blow your mind

Gone Girl was directed by David Fincher.

I kinda feel bad for the actors who thought they were finally getting their big break, not knowing they had been cast in a fake movie.

I was wondering if I could recommend “All the President’s Men” with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman about the Watergate scandal and “The Stanford Prison Experiment” with Ezra Miller and Tye Sheridan about the 1971 experiment of assigning students either prisoner or guard positions to see how they treat each other after a period of time.

Cranston is such an underrated actor…

The DVD & bluray have an interview with some of the actual people involved. It's pretty cool.

There is a lot about the colors and lenses I want to say but, I am having a difficult time articulating my thoughts. I will say your analysis is wonderful! I thank you for this.

A totally forgotten movie of John Goodman is King Ralph. It’s absolute mindless fun. Story is the entire royal family is wiped out and the have to search the US for distant heirs and find Ralph (John Goodman). You can imagine the hilarity.

Caught this in 22 seconds. Love you reactions Wong Kar Wai, hope you do more of him and Kurosawa, they’re my main influences.

A beautiful movie. Feels good to have a pro American point of view in a Hollywood film.

If you're a big fan of the cast of Argo (2012), you might want to check out Red State (2011). Ben took most of the cast of that film to make this one.

Tee hee, President Lincoln! I always enjoy your reaction and analysis. Peace from Ohio … Ooh, have you done Ronin? Excellent movie, great car chases.

One of the husband and wife escapees (Scoot McNairy and Kerry Bishe) also play a married couple in Halt and Catch Fire, just a tremendous TV show about the 80s computer boom. Would heartily recommend.

Tony Mendez's wife Jonna did a KZfaq thing for Wired about 3 years ago, reviewing Spy scenes in movies.

Love this one

One fictionalization in the movie is that in reality they had a smoother time getting through the airport and in the air -- there weren't all those last-minute scary moments or near-discoveries. I agree with what some critics said about that: as we viewers know in advance that they'll make it out (if we know the story at all), the added story tension is a good replacement for the tension the actual people must have felt, not knowing if this insane plan was going to work.

Great movie

This movie was shot on 8mm, 16mm AND 35mm. The 8 and 16mm shots were blown up to 35mm to add even more grain.

Surprised you haven't watched this one, I must have watched Argo nearly 100 times as I studied it for film school - great film!

i just love so much about how this film LOOKS. The close ups are used so well. reminds me of the Safdie Bros work.

Fun fact: Jack Kirby (co-creator of Captain America, Fantastic Four, the X-Men and others, and creator of Darkseid and the New Gods) was contacted by the producers of the fake ARGO movie and provided some art work and a few storyboards for them. His artwork isn't seen in this film, but you can find it at different sources online. When Kirby made art for the film, it was called LORD OF LIGHT was still being shopped around. So Kirby was never involved with the CIA operation but his artwork became part of the materials the CIA used when they faked the production of the movie ARGO during this rescue operation.

The most hilarious/ridiculous thing about this whole situation, is that the CIA pats themselves on the back for the rescue - even though it was the CIA who willfully subjugated and destabilized the entire country and created the situation. All imperialism aside, great movie!

I just gave a presentation on Rodrigo Prieto, the cinematographer here, and how he used different lenses and looks for the Iran/Hollywood/CIA scenes, interesting stuff. Not quite related, but Casey Affleck was just in my DMs to say he liked my video lmao

Shortly after Argo came out, I was on the Warner Brothers Lot tour. It was cool seeing all the locations used by the film. Have you seen the original Planet of the Apes? The real John Chambers did the make up. He won an Honorary Oscar for his work. (This was before there was an Oscar for Best Makeup.)

Hey James, Do you have a PO Box? Would love to send you a hat from the National Park I work at in Montana :)

you should check out charlie wilson's war next ;)

The real life wife of Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck's character) also worked for the CIA and she is featured in a lot of KZfaq videos. She's a treat to listen to.

My only issue with this film is they seriously downplay the Canadian individuals and Canadian government's involvement in helping the Americans out. I remember when the film was released it angered many Canadians that it seemed like our involvement was white washed by American media once again.

Turns out Affleck didn’t direct Gone Girl. He has directed a film with a similar name, “Gone Baby Gone”. Staring his brother Casey Affleck. But I’m surprised how many films he has directed. I’ve seen and love most of them. Including this one. Love seeing you’re reactions and takes on these

crazy this won the oscar for best picture, but affleck wasn’t even nominated

Hi James, I highly recommend that you watch Locke. It stars Tom Hardy.

Many of the exterior movie shots of the embassy during the siege are reenactments of video and pictures taken during the actual event. The man jumping the fence, for example. I remember this event as a kid and seeing it on the news. There where yellow ribbons all over the place where I lived. Charactures of the Ayatollah Khomeini in political cartoons were in the papers.Tensions were high. I don't remember seeing any violence against Arabs in general, but I know there were lots of calls to turn the deserts of Iran into glass.

whenever i spent the night in my friends' dorms in college and couldn't sleep, i would watch this movie - i kept the dvd in my backpack for this reason back when you could still put discs in laptops. it's not entirely historically accurate (no film based on true events is tbh) and it's disappointing that affleck (a white actor) chose to play a latino man, but goddamn is it a good movie

This is a very good movie. The only thing I’m not a fan of is that it doesn’t do justice to how involved the Canadians were in the whole process. It wasn’t just a CIA thing.

Dude yes! Crazy I've just recently been trying to get my dad to watch Argo! And he thought I was recommending Fargo again lmao He was like another season?! I said nooo that's FARGO 😅 I can't wait for the next season though. That new cast is great. Anyways, The Town is another great watch if you enjoyed Argo.

All the Presidents Men, Spotlight and Serpico are three good ones based on real life.

It's really interesting timing you reacted to this film as a new revolution is rising up in Iran now looking to challenge the Islamic Republic government. Might be worth your time to learn about it.

What a fantastic film! I've seen it a good 10 times and it never gets old.

Hi! Just FYI, the country’s name is pronounced EE-ran, not Eye-ran.

Again...I really enjoy and learn from your comments about filmology... directing/editing...or what I like to call your, "Filmbrain". Much love from Oregon ☺💚

I can remember reading a comic in the 80's and seeing the poster advert for the movie 'Argo', thinking this looks like it should be good and never finding the movie only to learn the truth years later.

Oddly the movie won best picture at the Oscar's but Ben wasn't even nominated for Best Director.

something abt the way the iranian masses are portrayed in this reminds me of michael parenti's anti-imperialist analysis of hollywood in his fantastic speech "rambo and the swarthy hordes". would rlly recommend it to everyone! always appreciate your reactions 🙏🏾

I saw this in the theater and was awh struck. Compared to what else was playing like , if I recall correctly the first transformers movie this was so needed!

Great film. Another good one by Ben Affleck is The Town.

Ben Affleck is a wonderful director. His work includes "The Town", "Live By Night", and "Gone Baby Gone" (possibly one of the most underrated films of our time). Would love to see you check out more of his work.

Canada was responsible for getting those people out. Affleck got booed out of the Toronto Film Festival.

I understand the whole money/story pull back part was just for the movie. The CIA kept the story/funds available.

MOVIE Reaction: 'The Golden Child' (1986). Starring: Eddie Murphy Request.

I always prefer the grain of a celluloid film. It really grounds the film in the real world.

Please Watch War Of the Worlds from S. Spielberg !

When they said alcohol was available Id be like …sooo all the gin and whiskey please lol

Firrst thig: happy new year! Second: I've always thought that Ben Afleck is a "so so" actor but a really good director, I think I've seen every movie he has directed so far and they are great.

Gone Girl???

For cinematography, any Denis Villeneuve movie would do, but i recommend Incendies from him, underated gem.

I was working in Afghanistan as a Special Contractor through the Department of State when I first watched this. While home on a 12 day vacation I bought the movie and downloaded it to my hard drive and when flying from Dubai to Afghanistan on SOFI Airlines I started to watch this. As the movie opened with all the CHanting, I looked around the plane and saw all of the muslims on the plane and even though they could not hear my headphones on the plane I still decided to watch this at a later date. It was BASED ON A TRUE STORY. I grew up through Junior Highschool and Highschool during this time period. I remember the Yellow ribbons on trees to bring the hostages home. This only showed the Hostages that had Escaped to the Canadian Embassy who were rescued by Affleck, but the Majority of the Hostages were held in the Embassy which the Iranians Over Ran at the Beginning. As I recall, we still do not have an operational Embassy in IRAN to this day. The IRANIANS DID NOT RESPECT JIMMY CARTER ( they thought he was week ) and they refused to release the hostages until Ronald Regan Became President. As soon as Ronald Regan took Office the hostages were released. The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have had no formal diplomatic relationship since that date. Switzerland is the U.S. protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens in Iran.Apr 1, 2022

Fun fact - The real-life science fiction story used as the cover was Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Highly recommend the book.

Love this movie

Question, do you see any similarity or evolution between Argo and The Last Duel (2021)? Both are Ben Affleck movies, and both of them have that three-stories in one structure that is so difficult to get right.

The Shah may not have been the nicest guy, but he was a saint compared to the people who took over after him. Iran was on the way to becoming a western nation under him, women were free, they had very close relations with Israel etc.

nice glasses 👍🏼

👩🏾‍💻 This movie is one of our Family Classics. I remember the first time I saw it I kept thinking people talk a lot of shit about movies but the love for them are universal and I now know people who literally survived because of that fact!! Thanks for explaining the "technicals" James and I'm glad you enjoyed the movie 🙋🏾‍♀️

Who thinks Spielberg's film Munich (great film) would compliment Argo?

Bro, if you want to co-write and pitch a Fargo series- I'm with you!! Been wanting to for a long time 😅

This movie won best picture which Affleck also was a producer. He also was nominated for best director but lost

Crazy to think most of this actually happened

“Argofuckyerself” 😂love this film.

Isn't amazing sometimes when actual events are wilder or so bizarre it couldn't possibly be real and yet it is. Argo!

My friends’ in-laws fled Iran as Jews during the revolution. It’s still a really raw subject that’s been passed down generationally to this day.

Another movie with another fake movie topic would be 'Wag the Dog'

First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award for Best Picture live from the White House, which was awesome and very surprising to see as I knew who the winner was going to be. Lol!!

Great film, disappointed that A hispanic/latino actor was not utilized for the main character, as his ethnicity was indicated.

I lived thru that time... Alll is true..

You should check out Smokin Aces