Argo (2012)

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Jax_Teller wrote:Bitter much y'all?
Just Allstar. As always. If something's not in favor of DiCaprio or JGL, he's there to add a little salt to the conversation.

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Peace wrote:Should I see Argo guys?
Simply put, yes!

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Master Virgo wrote:This film was as disrespectful to Iranians as Schindler's List was towards the Germans. Also easily the best political thriller of 2012.£
This is plainly untrue. The wide cast of characters in Schindler's List is diverse and shows many distinctive personality types, each behaving a little different from the rest. There's complexity in how the characters on all sides are drawn, and a necessarily better comparison is to the slave owners in 12 Years a Slave. Evil, but human.

Compare Argo to Zero Dark Thirty for a second. In Argo, the Iranian characters play each scene as evil and/or barbaric as possible, acting ignorant and vicious as often as possible. They aren't humanized, and given no basis of motivation to their actions. They're portrayed as stupid, ignorant, primitive. In Zero Dark Thirty, the "bad" terrorist characters—and there's many Middle Eastern characters on 'both' sides to further erase any bias–are humanized to a powerful degree. Look at two scenes in particular: 1.) the opening scene forces audiences to pity and even empathize with a terrorist detainee. The action of our "heroes" is in the ballpark of as brutal as what we see the Iranian characters in Argo do, to an unarmed prisoner. 2.) Pay attention to the later interrogation scene with the man who says "He's one of the disappeared ones." He's characterized as having hopes, dreams, fears, and those traits become essential for the audience understanding why he makes the decisions that he does.

In Argo, the Middle Eastern people are a screaming mob of savages, and it's boo-hoo to the americans that their perfect white skinned selves were stuck there. Had Argo's opening montage actually played into the story at large this criticism would've lost some ground, but as is, it's as if the film opens by saying "Look, I don't want to sound racist, but"

Racist art can still be great art, but there's not much in Argo beneath being a highly effective mechanized thriller.


-Vader

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Rohan wrote:
Peace wrote:Should I see Argo guys?
Your question in its nature sounds a bit insane.
hahaha Thanks for the laugh.

I was being a bit facetious since the thread took a left turn for a bit.

DD and Fancy I will get on this.

Even if it's just a... what did Vader call it... "mechanized thriller".

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