Yesterday I was generally feeling sad and nostalgic after reading about Yash Chopra's death. (Have watched most of movies directed by him except for Faasle, Parampara and Joshila). The thing is I have got watching movies in my genes from my father. He himself loves watching movies, Dev Anand, Amithabh Bachchan to be specific and he has never questioned my fanfare about movies. Though I am not certain what he enjoys the most about movies in general, but I am sure we all watch movies for a bit of escapism and adventure. As I have grown up, my movie taste and expectations have also changed. Even though I have drooled over sappy, poetic romances our hindi movies normally depicted in my childhood, I think I love myself a '500 days of summer' and 'before sunrise' as well. Having said that the starry eyed teenager in me believed in the super cheesy line 'someone somewhere is made for you'. Almost. Its very hard for me to imagine myself as a person without movies (seriously too many movies have been watched in this lifetime till now and an equally good number still remain unseen!). If books gave me fodder to imagine new worlds, movies made those worlds real and tangible. So I am not going to imagine a life without movies or books. But I will instead talk about this movie called Argo and how fantastic it is!
[if you are planning to watch the movie then my post won't really hurt your plans. But then you might not want to read it]
Its not just true but fantastical that a CIA agent made an entire nation believe that a bunch of American Embassy officers having taken refuge at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, were actually part of a sci-fi film crew and flew them out of the country. All this happened during the Iran hostage crisis. So this level of make-believe is just so awesome! In depicting the tale, Ben Affleck the director takes no sides, has no bias about motives of the USA or Islamic extremists. He is telling the story of a man on a rescue mission and he does that with flair! The drama builds upto last 15 minutes where every scene is nail biting (or curse inducing, if you know what I mean). This is laced with fine, fine dialogue. And some politically incorrect upfront jokes about political systems, bureaucracy and hollywood.
Alan Arkin as the typical LA producer is the funny life of the movie. An entire backdrop of a 'fake movie' is elaborately constructed with the help of John Goodman and Arkin. 'The best bad idea' Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) got, gains momentum in true Hollywood fashion. Most amusing is the scene when the extremists at the airport actually get convinced by a set of storyboards about a sci-fi movie. Even they become starry eyed kids who would love them a star wars.
These and many such moments make Argo extremely human, enjoyable and want you to repeat after Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin's character name)
'Argo! F**k Yourself!'
To the power of movies and make-believe-ism!
~nightflier
[if you are planning to watch the movie then my post won't really hurt your plans. But then you might not want to read it]
Its not just true but fantastical that a CIA agent made an entire nation believe that a bunch of American Embassy officers having taken refuge at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, were actually part of a sci-fi film crew and flew them out of the country. All this happened during the Iran hostage crisis. So this level of make-believe is just so awesome! In depicting the tale, Ben Affleck the director takes no sides, has no bias about motives of the USA or Islamic extremists. He is telling the story of a man on a rescue mission and he does that with flair! The drama builds upto last 15 minutes where every scene is nail biting (or curse inducing, if you know what I mean). This is laced with fine, fine dialogue. And some politically incorrect upfront jokes about political systems, bureaucracy and hollywood.
Alan Arkin as the typical LA producer is the funny life of the movie. An entire backdrop of a 'fake movie' is elaborately constructed with the help of John Goodman and Arkin. 'The best bad idea' Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) got, gains momentum in true Hollywood fashion. Most amusing is the scene when the extremists at the airport actually get convinced by a set of storyboards about a sci-fi movie. Even they become starry eyed kids who would love them a star wars.
These and many such moments make Argo extremely human, enjoyable and want you to repeat after Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin's character name)
'Argo! F**k Yourself!'
To the power of movies and make-believe-ism!
~nightflier
