Sunday, November 18, 2012

Argo - the movie

This is a movie not to be missed. It is based on a real life hostage crisis in 1979, where 6 Americans working in Iran's US embassy managed to escape and hide in Canadian ambassador's resident, while the rest were capture by the Iranian regime. It has an exciting plot on how CIA send 1 of its man to rescue the 6 with the help of Hollywood. Sound unbelievable but that is what makes the story so absorbing. There is a sense of irony cum humour in the mist of the trilling spy action.

Besides, it offers a glimpse into history.  The ugly fact is that US is not always the 'hero' fighting for freedom and democracy. Their true agenda is often selfish as they wish to protect their source of oil which powers their economy. They would  interfered with any foreign government which they deemed threaten their oil supply.  When Iran nationalized the international oil companies such as Shell, etc, US helped to orchestra an uprising to put their 'puppet' to head the country in order to protect their interest.

As a result, Iran was ruled by a corrupt dictator whom US backed. His citizens lived in poverty and misery while he flew over his 'special' meal from France using the a Concord plane ! When the long suffering Iranians succeeded in overthrowing the corrupt regime, the strong negative reaction against US is hardly surprising. The situation was further aggravated when US offered sanctuary to the corrupt dictator after his escape. This is the background for the movie Agro.

Argo is actually the name of the Hollywood science fiction movie the CIA agent staged as an excuse to get into Iran to rescue the hostages.

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