THIS IS NOT A MOVIE CRITIQUE…

Last night I went to see a good movie, Argo. I recommend it, I would give it 4 stars if I were David Stratton. Maybe more.

It is ‘based on a true story’ ie, with some tweakings of real occurrences, which took place after the fall of the Shah of Iran, when the US embassy was stormed by Islamic Revolutionaries, students and militia, and the staff of the embassy was taken hostage. The IR were demanding that the US return the Shah to Iran for trial and execution. This occurred November 4, 1979. Six staff managed to get away and took refuge with the Canadian ambassador. The actual film story covers the hostage crisis as background and describes how these 6 were rescued in a hare-brained but ultimately successful mission. (Sorry to spoil it for you. Happy ending.)

It was directed by Ben Affleck who also stars in it, and I must say that Mr Affleck looks pretty good in the 70’s facial hairand hairstyle, but he always looks pretty good, hey? Turns out, he’s not just a pretty face (and the rest), he’s a decent director too.

The film makes excellent use of shaky-cam techniques especially in the frightening crowd scenes, conveying the chaos and the rage of the mob as well as the fear of the Americans. It’s taut and suspenseful and perfect in its re-creation of the time and places.

Alan Alda and John Goodman also have terrific character roles, all based on real people. Anyway, see it for yourself on the big screen, it’s worth it.

As the movie finished, and I prepared for the usual dash to the exit, I noticed that the credits were cleverly drawing parallels between the actors and the real people whom they represented as well as newspaper photos of the time recreated in the movie, so I stayed a bit longer, and then something most unexpected happened.

There was a voice-over by none other than Ex-President Jimmy Carter, essentially taking the credit for the subsequent rescue of the 52 embassy workers who were freed after 444 days in captivity in the embassy building in Tehran. (14 others, women and African-Americans, and one man who had developed MS while held, had been released earlier.) They were rescued and returned to the US, every one of them, ‘without a shot being fired.’

And I nearly choked. Never have I wished so much for Ronald Reagan to still be alive and fully compos mentis, so that he could refute this slimy truth-twister, because believe me it was not Carter, the failed President, who ultimately secured the rescue, it was Reagan. As soon as he was sworn in as President, the hostages were released, probably because the Iranians were punishing Carter for having harboured the Shah in the US where he was being treated at the Mayo Clinic for cancer. (He had died September 1980, 2 months earlier.) Oh yes, there was also a large transfer of gold bullion made to the Iranians. But then, the US also held on to Iranian assets in the USA. Tit for tat, negotiations and negotiations.

Horsetrading for the lives of US citizens.

The imprisonment was awful, as with most imprisonments, with little extra frills, like long stretches in solitary for some who dissed the Ayatollah, and pretend executions by firing squad, and being hooded and cuffed and stripped, all that fun stuff. Despite the claims of the Iranians that the hostages were being treated as ‘guests’. 444 days is a LONG time to be such a 'guest'.

Granted, Carter did try to mount a secret rescue in April 1980… SIX MONTHS into the crisis. It tanked mainly due to equipment failure and 8 US soldiers were killed.

The US has a long history of interference in Iran, having orchestrated regime change, kicking out a pro-Soviet elected leader in 1953, putting the Shah (whose father had not allowed Nazi Germany into Iran during WW2, thus helping the Allies to victory) into power and propping him up for decades while he was oppressing his people and living it up in the way of most despots. Carter had only good things to say about him; I suppose that was back in the day when the US actually supported the despots it put into power, not like today, hey Hosni?Saddam? Muammar? What a rats’ nest.

So the Shah was ‘a prick, but he’s our prick’ as they said in the movie. And the US had a long history of these sorts of overt and covert machinations and interferences in other countries’ governments. But until Carter and his dithering, right or wrong, the US had POWER.

Thanks to Carter and his administration, it suddenly became clear to the Ayatollah and his cronies that America, the Great Satan, was, to borrow a Maoist phrase, a paper tiger. Powerless.

I think you can lay a large part of the blame for what has become of Iran-US relations squarely at the feet of Jimmy Carter.

So Jimbo, spare me the self-serving movie voice-overs. It totally spoiled the experience for me.

And on a final note, look at today. A US ambassador and 3 staff murdered in Libya. US embassies stormed in Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia. And what do Obama and his Secretary of State do? Apologize for a dumb film that upset the poor sensitive Muslims.

A paper tiger. In flames.