IN 1979, retaliating against the US refusal to deliver the fugitive Shah to Ayatollah Khomeni’s regime, an Iranian mob sacked the US embassy in Tehran and imprisoned all but six staff members, who took asylum in the Canadian embassy.

“Argo’s” director Ben Affleck plays Mendez, a CIA operative assigned to extract the six. The film may or may not take artistic liberties in telling how Mendez recruits a Hollywood make-up artist (John Goodman) and a director (Alan Arkin) to create the legend of a Canadian film party visiting Teheran to scout locations for a film to be called “Argo”. The six would form the party on the trip to the airport.

Employing conventional bang-bang, shoot ‘em up insouciance, other films have portrayed sending American intelligence or special forces people to extract US citizens from Muslim countries. “Argo” uses different methods. Goodman and Arkin not only give the operation its film-industry components without leaving California; they also provide the film with a leavening of humour. And lord knows it needs that. Because though we know how it ends, its tensions never flag as Affleck and writer Chris Terrio deliver its story with style and cred.

We have no reason to protest any liberties they may have taken with “Argo’s” excellently staged and performed details, though their verity may not withstand careful scrutiny on history’s page. The main story is undeniable. As also is that good old Hollywood hubris, which rather plays down the Canadian contribution.

At Dendy and Capitol 6