The movie to beat is Argo.The year the American embassy in Tehran was overrun, I was living in my parents' house taking care of my dying mother. Desperate for distraction, I watched hours of news, and rarely missed Ted Koppel on Nightline.
I can't say that overdosing on reality made me feel better but it did take my mind off my personal problems.
Day after day the chanting mobs from Iran filled the television screen, the hate in the faces of the men and women so visceral that it radiated in an almost palpable wave.
So many people, day after day after day.
"Don't any of these people have jobs?" my mother and I wondered.
I don't know when it became known that the Canadian ambassador had risked his life to shelter six American diplomats but I do remember the news stories at the time. His actions were so honorable and so brave. The Ambassador's name is Kenneth Taylor.
Several years ago I was paid to read the Argo script for one of my clients. It came to me cold, the only information attached was that Ben Affleck was going to direct it. At the time he'd directed Gone, Baby, Gone, so I didn't roll my eyes the way I sometimes do when I'm told an actor has a passion project he/she wants to direct. (I know, that's not very nice of me, but I've read scripts that actors have chosen for their directorial debuts and at lot of them are truly dreadful. Tai-Chi Man? Really?)
Argo was so good it made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.
The movie is even better.
Go see it.
