Argo(not)

"The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible." - Mark Twain

It's hard to believe that this year's Academy Award winning film Argo is still causing so much upset north of the 49th parallel.  It was gripping and suspenseful.  It was a great way to spend a couple of hours.  That it was fictional doesn't make it an less entertaining.

For those who don't know, let's set the record straight about what really happened during the 1987 hostage crisis in Tehran.  The CIA had very little to do with the rescue of the six Americans who found refuge in the homes of Ken Taylor, the Canadian Ambassador to Iran and John Sheardown, another Canadian official.  Jimmy Carter, who was the American President at the time of the incident told  CNN, "Ninety percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good. But Ben Affleck's character in the film was only in Tehran a day and a half. And the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process." 

The Canadians never considered  closing the Canadian embassy and abandoning the six Americans who had taken refuge under Canadian protection. The pretend trip to the bazaar to scout for filming locations never happened.  Ken Taylor's wife bought the plane tickets to Zurich from three different travel agencies without encountering suspicion.  There was no last-minute cancellation of the mission by the Carter administration. There was no confrontation with security officials at the departure gate. There was no attempt to stop the plane by Iranian guards. The role played by Alan Arkin of producer Lester Siegel is entirely fictional.

As I said earlier, Argo is a great piece of fiction.  It's about as true to life as The Sound of Music is to the story of the Von Trapp family.  I love The Sound of Music.  That it is fictional doesn't stop me from watching it every year.  If you want history instead of entertainment, you might want to pick up a copy of Robert Wright's book, Our Man in Tehran. Come to think of it, the real story of what happened in Tehran is pretty gripping too.