So, in a move that is very unlike me, I went to see Argo on opening night (last night). I don’t go to see movies in theaters very often these days because they cost money, but I got a free ride because I gave blood, (side note: ouch!) For those who haven’t already clicked over to IMDB to see what its about, Argo follows six United States diplomats who have escaped capture at the US embassy in Iran at the start of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. In the minutes following a riot and subsequent break in of the embassy, they find a place to hide in the Canadian ambassadors home. The story then follows their subsequent attempt at escape via overly flamboyant movie backdrop as directed by Ben Afleck.
As someone who enjoys good stories (and tries to write them from time to time) I would have criticized Argo for being too unbelievable, except that it’s based on a true story. Now, I know Hollywood has a habit of dressing up “true stories” to make a better movie, and I am not an expert on the actual events so I can’t comment on how true the movie actually was. However, I have to say I loved it. This review doesn't have any major spoilers, but most of what I'm gonna talk about will probably make more sense if you've seen the movie. If you haven't seen the move, go see it, or at least watch the trailer:
As someone who enjoys good stories (and tries to write them from time to time) I would have criticized Argo for being too unbelievable, except that it’s based on a true story. Now, I know Hollywood has a habit of dressing up “true stories” to make a better movie, and I am not an expert on the actual events so I can’t comment on how true the movie actually was. However, I have to say I loved it. This review doesn't have any major spoilers, but most of what I'm gonna talk about will probably make more sense if you've seen the movie. If you haven't seen the move, go see it, or at least watch the trailer:
First, I would like to say I appreciated the narration at the beginning setting the tone. The narration discussed the background politics of the exiled western friendly Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the usurpation by Ruhollah Khomeini, explaining why Iranians were furious with us then. The movie didn’t portray Americans as the gun toting western heroes, but showed the dark side of international politics and made the rioting crowd outside not enemies, but humans. This was enlightening to me, helping me to better understand the current climate in the middle east. From the trailer, I had almost expected the film to take an action styled approach, but was pleasantly surprised to see it develop as it did.
I’ve always liked dark comedies, (partially because I feel that the best way to deal with a dark cynical world is to laugh), despite their biggest flaw: an inconsistent tone. I realize that at time of writing Wikipedia considers the film to be a straight thriller, but the number of one-liners I was laughing at beg to differ.
If you’ve seen Snatch (or its sibling, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), then you know what a dark comedy with a consistent tone can be like. Argo has some crippling flaws from the start that make it feel very schizophrenic; half of the movie takes place in a palm beach-y hollywood setting with very tongue in cheek humor. The setting is bright, vibrant, funny. The second half of the film is in washington (no, I’m not doing these halves in order, I’m going light to dark tonally or west to east geographically) with a very tense “prepare for battle” kind of tone, giving it a very suspenseful, thrilling, but sardonic point of view. There is still humor here, but it is very far removed from the all-smiles Hollywood settings. The final half of the film (there are three halves, deal with it) takes place in Iran, lacks any sense of humor, and maintains a very stoic, thrilling, dark tone.
The inherent problem is that because all of these settings are so contradictory, any time you switch between them you feel like you’ve stumbled into a whole new movie. When a phone call goes from Hollywood to Washington (DC, not Washington state by the way) the tone, including lighting, writing, and at times music, shifts so dramatically that its hard to remember how you’re supposed to be feeling. It’s even more drastic when the scene changes from Hollywood to Iran. Maybe thats the point; maybe thats what Mr. Afleck was going for.
Despite this natural flaw in the flow of the story, the film pulls it off quite well. Each setting has a very distinct tone and feels both alive on its one but connected to the others. And now we get to the good stuff: the sounds. It was easy to pick out different music for each area; licensing music by Aerosmith, Van Halen and Dire Straits was a great way to convey the era. Music for the scenes in Washington reminded me of the music from the Dark Knight, very dramatic, minor, action oriented. The sort of music I have on my personal soundtrack for when I’m gearing up to go paint balling. I am not familiar with the composer, Alexandre Desplat, this being the first movie he’s scored that I’ve seen, but I feel it was tastefully done.
The music in Iran uses a lot of middle eastern instruments and tonalities, doing a good job of building tension; I recognized eastern style violin, the oud, and a variety of hand percussion (tabla perhaps?). Keeping the music tense is a tall order seeing as the scenes in Iran are always tense, what with gun toting extremists knocking at the door and people being executed in the street. The music is overall good, though there were no major themes or motives that I walked away humming. The middle eastern style music present in Argo has given me pause for thought as I’ve noticed that we as a culture only really experience middle eastern music styles through movies, often with a very negative feeling. Hold that thought, I think I’ll write about that sometime later.
So, Argo, where was I...? Ah yes!
I’ve noticed in modern movies, scenes tend to change a lot faster than they used to. Argo was particularly guilty of this. Scenes changed so often that I felt like I was watching a two hour movie trailer. It did keep me on the edge of my seat at the best of times, but at the worst of times it made me feel like it was using the “shaky cam” effect as camera angles changed in seconds (or less). In Argo more so than any other movie, this could be a problem because a scene change could be across countries or continents, meaning the tonal shift that I mentioned before could be not just extreme but almost constant.
This is the part where the sound designers and foley teams should be patting themselves on the back. At no time did I ever feel like there was ever a sound effect that felt out of place or jarring the transition between scenes. The sound effects were mostly by the book ones to convey location, with a few of what I call precursors or holdovers (a phone ringing a second before you actually see it on screen, people talking before or after they appear on screen). But, there is one thing that I particularly applaud the film for, and thats crowd noise.
This is a story where the antagonist (not bad guy, antagonist) is the crowd of people who are all around the protagonists all the time. The risk of discovery is constant. Crowd noise can be used to simply give a sense of place (as in the scene in the market) or to be used to make the audience feel a sense of pressure (as in every other scene in Iran, including later during the market scene). I always felt a sense of pressure and thats a good thing for a thriller/dark comedy such as this. Every crowd sounded different from the airport to the riots in the street, to the clamor of people working frantically in an office in Washington.
To the budding filmmaker, I’d like to say that sound plays a far more crucial role in the tone of the movie than you may realize, and Argo is a good example of how well done sound (including music) can influence the tone of the movie for the better. The tonal, locational, and personality shifts must be dealt with very precisely, and Argo managed to keep each individual place unique while at the same time making them feel connected.
Side note: First, the Hollywood sign was repaired and unveiled in ’78, so the dilapidated appearance of the sign was inaccurate (did I actually catch that??? I never notice movie inaccuracies!). Second, am I the only one who thought that Ben Affleck looked like Dave Grohl during that movie?
Cheers,
Kev
I’ve always liked dark comedies, (partially because I feel that the best way to deal with a dark cynical world is to laugh), despite their biggest flaw: an inconsistent tone. I realize that at time of writing Wikipedia considers the film to be a straight thriller, but the number of one-liners I was laughing at beg to differ.
If you’ve seen Snatch (or its sibling, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), then you know what a dark comedy with a consistent tone can be like. Argo has some crippling flaws from the start that make it feel very schizophrenic; half of the movie takes place in a palm beach-y hollywood setting with very tongue in cheek humor. The setting is bright, vibrant, funny. The second half of the film is in washington (no, I’m not doing these halves in order, I’m going light to dark tonally or west to east geographically) with a very tense “prepare for battle” kind of tone, giving it a very suspenseful, thrilling, but sardonic point of view. There is still humor here, but it is very far removed from the all-smiles Hollywood settings. The final half of the film (there are three halves, deal with it) takes place in Iran, lacks any sense of humor, and maintains a very stoic, thrilling, dark tone.
The inherent problem is that because all of these settings are so contradictory, any time you switch between them you feel like you’ve stumbled into a whole new movie. When a phone call goes from Hollywood to Washington (DC, not Washington state by the way) the tone, including lighting, writing, and at times music, shifts so dramatically that its hard to remember how you’re supposed to be feeling. It’s even more drastic when the scene changes from Hollywood to Iran. Maybe thats the point; maybe thats what Mr. Afleck was going for.
Despite this natural flaw in the flow of the story, the film pulls it off quite well. Each setting has a very distinct tone and feels both alive on its one but connected to the others. And now we get to the good stuff: the sounds. It was easy to pick out different music for each area; licensing music by Aerosmith, Van Halen and Dire Straits was a great way to convey the era. Music for the scenes in Washington reminded me of the music from the Dark Knight, very dramatic, minor, action oriented. The sort of music I have on my personal soundtrack for when I’m gearing up to go paint balling. I am not familiar with the composer, Alexandre Desplat, this being the first movie he’s scored that I’ve seen, but I feel it was tastefully done.
The music in Iran uses a lot of middle eastern instruments and tonalities, doing a good job of building tension; I recognized eastern style violin, the oud, and a variety of hand percussion (tabla perhaps?). Keeping the music tense is a tall order seeing as the scenes in Iran are always tense, what with gun toting extremists knocking at the door and people being executed in the street. The music is overall good, though there were no major themes or motives that I walked away humming. The middle eastern style music present in Argo has given me pause for thought as I’ve noticed that we as a culture only really experience middle eastern music styles through movies, often with a very negative feeling. Hold that thought, I think I’ll write about that sometime later.
So, Argo, where was I...? Ah yes!
I’ve noticed in modern movies, scenes tend to change a lot faster than they used to. Argo was particularly guilty of this. Scenes changed so often that I felt like I was watching a two hour movie trailer. It did keep me on the edge of my seat at the best of times, but at the worst of times it made me feel like it was using the “shaky cam” effect as camera angles changed in seconds (or less). In Argo more so than any other movie, this could be a problem because a scene change could be across countries or continents, meaning the tonal shift that I mentioned before could be not just extreme but almost constant.
This is the part where the sound designers and foley teams should be patting themselves on the back. At no time did I ever feel like there was ever a sound effect that felt out of place or jarring the transition between scenes. The sound effects were mostly by the book ones to convey location, with a few of what I call precursors or holdovers (a phone ringing a second before you actually see it on screen, people talking before or after they appear on screen). But, there is one thing that I particularly applaud the film for, and thats crowd noise.
This is a story where the antagonist (not bad guy, antagonist) is the crowd of people who are all around the protagonists all the time. The risk of discovery is constant. Crowd noise can be used to simply give a sense of place (as in the scene in the market) or to be used to make the audience feel a sense of pressure (as in every other scene in Iran, including later during the market scene). I always felt a sense of pressure and thats a good thing for a thriller/dark comedy such as this. Every crowd sounded different from the airport to the riots in the street, to the clamor of people working frantically in an office in Washington.
To the budding filmmaker, I’d like to say that sound plays a far more crucial role in the tone of the movie than you may realize, and Argo is a good example of how well done sound (including music) can influence the tone of the movie for the better. The tonal, locational, and personality shifts must be dealt with very precisely, and Argo managed to keep each individual place unique while at the same time making them feel connected.
Side note: First, the Hollywood sign was repaired and unveiled in ’78, so the dilapidated appearance of the sign was inaccurate (did I actually catch that??? I never notice movie inaccuracies!). Second, am I the only one who thought that Ben Affleck looked like Dave Grohl during that movie?
Cheers,
Kev