Argo, the movie, is about the CIA’s undercover mission to rescue Americans trapped in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis. Ben Affleck’s film is based on true events; however, some elements remain unrealistic and portray a bad image of Iran. Argo’s storyline, in which the American embassy in Iran was taken over in Nov. 4, 1979, is true. The film effectively retells the real events where six Americans were taken hostage, and eventually were able to escape the compound and make their way to an apartment. The CIA along with the Canadian government ultimately got them from Tehran with the help of a cover story and false identities that passed the group off as a Hollywood crew making a sci-fi film called Argo.
One element that has been disputed in Argo’s accuracy is the involvement of the Canadian government in the escape. In 1979, Canada received complete credit for the escape because the U.S. government was worried about possible repercussions if CIA involvement was publicized. However, in the film, the Canadian involvement is significantly downplayed.
According to an interview from Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck’s role), the six Americans were helped and housed by two Canadians: the Ambassador Ken Taylor, and a Canadian embassy employee, John Sheardown. In the film, it is told that all of the Americans stayed with Taylor, and Sheardown is not even mentioned. Nonetheless, Mendez explains that Taylor was the one who cabled Washington to begin the escape plan in earnest, and once the plan was decided on, Canadians “scouted the airport, sent people in and out of Iran to establish random patterns and get copies of entry and exit visas, bought three sets of airline tickets,” and “even coached the six in sounding Canadian.”
Although Taylor has a major part in the film, and is presented as a sympathetic and brave man who took great personal risks to save the Americans, his actual role was even larger in reality. Mendez mentions that he was “spying for the U.S. throughout the hostage crisis, at the request of Jimmy Carter.”
Furthermore, another element that has proven to be false is the escape that serves as the climax in the film. Affleck created a version, which involves every possible complication. In the film, the U.S. government reverses its approval of the plan at the last minute, meaning there may be no tickets waiting for the Americans when they arrive at the airport. However, Mendez mentions in the interview that the plane tickets were purchased ahead of time by the Canadians. Another scene in the film that leads to a tense moment is at the airport where the six Americans are stopped by airport security guards. Actually, though, Mendez explained that the trip through the airport was “smooth as silk”, and they did not have problems.
A surprising fact I found to be true was that the Iranian government had people repairing shredded documents found in the American Embassy. Nonetheless, the scenes in which some kids piece together the face of one of the six Americans right as the group reaches the airport leading to the chase down the departing airplane in a jeep and police cars was created to add thrill to the film.
Argo is not a hundred percent accurate to the real events because it was only based on the real incident during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. Therefore, Argo must not be taken as a historical film since some things were changed in order to make it accessible to a theater audience.