Argo was real or fake?

In the movie Argo (2012), Ben Affleck plays a CIA agent that comes up with a clever plan to rescue the six hostages held by Iran from 1979 to 1981.

The movie title Argo is the title of the movie that Affleck and a Hollywood producer friend come up with. They come up with a fake movie requiring dessert space shooting scenes: Iran. After he convinces all of the CIA that the plan will work, he gets a script, film crew, and someone to put their name on it. But they can't go in as Americans. They are in disguise as Canadians.

The Iran people aren't in conflict with Canadians, and the hostages found refuge at the Canadian embassy with the ambassador and his family. Affleck and his crew show up and, though have Canadian identities, still have to be careful. Once they get to the Canadian embassy, he meets the six people. He describes the plan to them, but they aren't fully convinced that it will work. They believe that they will die if they try it, but Affleck assures them that if they don't try it they will die anyway.

I was able to connect with some of the happenings in the movie because we had just learned about OPEC and the Iranian Revolution and bad feelings against the United States in class, but now that I'm researching the hostage, there are a lot of things left out, changed, and inserted. I believe that they did this just to make it more interesting; as movie makers usually do.

First off, the Canadian role in the rescue was downplayed in the movie. This part of the movie was probably upsetting to some Canadians, as they had a lot to do with it. The movie exposed that the CIA actually rescued the hostages. The CIA didn't want their name to be involved so they let the Canadians take all the credit at the time. Yes, the hostages were housed by the Canadians, and the Canadians scoped out the town and how safe and secure the airport was while teaching the hostages to speak like someone from Canada.

Secondly, the ride to the airport and the boarding of the plane was quite easy. In the movie, it displays that the Jimmy Carter and the government shuts down the plan "Argo," but then quickly reinstates it and sends the tickets for the hostages just in the nick of time, conveniently. The tickets were historically ordered in advance by the Canadian ambassador's wife. (How's that for Canadian involvement?) Also, the movie captures the paper weaving children piecing together a photo of one of the hostages just in time to discover one of the hostages at the airport, and they just barely take off in a plane without getting shot down. None of this happened. The escape was a lot easier than displayed, but with movies, you have to have some tension and a climax.

While the film fails to mention that Argo was originally Lord of Light, it was a great movie that really made the history lesson about it come to life. It over dramatized the encounter of the Iranian hostage, but what do you expect from a movie? (537)