Commentary

Rewatched “Argo” the other night. It’s a 2012 flick about the Iran Hostage Crisis that won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2013, among a slew of other nominations and awards.

Good movie, a story well told. Tense because it’s a true story.

Actor Ben Affleck directed it, and co-produced it with George Clooney. This mention is worth noting because Affleck and Clooney are two liberal Hollywood types and “Argo” was a fairly straight-up treatment of the event, including congratulating the entertainment industry for being patriotic Americans.

Twenty-twelve was indeed a different time.

In case you haven’t seen it, the story is about a CIA operative tasked with getting out of Iran six American embassy employees who escaped from the embassy when it was overrun. They were safely ensconced in the Canadian ambassador’s residence.

Once again, the Wizard of Oz’s “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” symbolism hits this film’s bull’s eye. High-level officials comically spit ball ideas on how to get the six Americans out of Iran, a country in which every Caucasian or Iranian with American sympathies, was being detained or worse. USDA employees inspecting crops? (Wrong time of year.) Teachers? (No government schools in Iran.) Travel hundreds of miles by bicycle? (In winter?)

CIA operative Tony Mendez, portrayed by Affleck, shoots all those scenarios down, then formulates a plan that, as they say in the movies, “is so crazy it just might work.”

“Let’s put on a show!” Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland could be heard in the back of my mind.

To give credibility to the ploy, they had to go all in. Mendez entices a movie producer to create a production company looking for locations to shoot “Argo,” a Star Wars rip-off bent on capitalizing on the Science-Fiction craze of the day. They go through all the motions of casting a movie and Mendez then travels to Tehran under the guise of being the Canadian producers, director and company on a scouting junket.

One man in, seven people out.

The Iranians used a simple two-part form when a person enters the country: the white copy is kept and the yellow copy goes with the person. On the way out, officials match the two copies and viola! you leave. Mendez grabbed a stack of them when entering the country, and relied on the probability of a paperwork SNAFU when the group went through the airport on the way out.

It’s a true story and the casting director did a fine job finding people who resembled the actual embassy individuals—sometimes strikingly so.

What I saw contrasted with today’s political atmosphere.

In 2012, we were just starting Obama’s second term. He had flown around the globe apologizing for the United States.

“Argo” argues otherwise. It showcases what is exceptional about the United States. We’re bold. We’re brazen. We take risks. We’re unpredictable. There’s always a card up our sleeve.

The message to aggressor countries: Don’t mess with the U.S. of A.

Two liberal Hollywoodskis, Affleck and Clooney, put on the Silver Screen a testament to American Exceptionalism. Two Democrats doing the most capitalistic of activities: making millions at the box office.

Look at the U.S. now.

Actual clips of network reporting in the movie show some of the giants of television news reporting in their crisp and insightful ways, with steely eyes getting to crux of the day’s events. Today, the news is slanted, all regurgitating the liberal party line and not asking the probing questions that were the hallmark of American journalism in previous decades.

Sadly, the United States is predictable schmredictable with grampaw Biden shuffling from appearance to appearance, sometimes being led by his wife, hand on his elbow, guiding him off the stage. He mumbles and fumbles with the three by five index cards he’s given by his handlers to read.

But don’t count the United States out.