Argo (2012)

Ben Affleck's Argo is hard to pin down. It is a film that clearly takes an ironical, Wag the Dog-type of stance towards American politics. However, at the same time, the film manages to present an image of the world outside of the US that is very dependent on dominant images of the Angry Muslim, images that we come across in media reports all the time. So why did Argo reproduce that representation of Muslims as raging, one-dimentional and belligerent human beings? I find that quite mysterious. But OK, Argo had some decent moments on the level of comedy. Maybe the images of Muslim Rage should be read as a parody? I'm not sure - what we seem to end up with is a rather patriotic pledge of allegience to the Liberal World, a world in which CIA agents go to Iran in order to set up a super-clandestine mission in which he is supposed to save a bunch of embassy people by means of a bogus sci-fi movie. Background story: 1979, post-revolutionary Iran & rage against American in Iran, the embassy is held hostage but a bunch of people managed to escape. A CIA man is sent over to take them out of the country. // Argo was a pretty shady movie, but I can't say anything bad about Alan Arkin.