Is Hollywood’s take on an international hostage crisis off the mark?
According to some, yes.
Argo, which is being released into movie theatres Friday, tells the story of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis when militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans captive.
Six of those hostages were able to escape eventually, thanks to Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, who became an international hero.
The small group ending up sneaking out a side door. Then the longtime diplomat moved the Americans around to various safe houses, before securing fake Canadian passports for them from Ottawa.
But Argo highlights little-known details about the escape plan. That story, declassified in 1997, reveals a risky plan by CIA “exfiltration” expert Tony Mendez to get the Americans out of Iran. After weighing various possible occupations, Ottawa and Washington decided the group had to pretend to be a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a bogus science-fiction film (called Argo).
In order for the plan to work, the Americans had to memorize Canadian trivia and speak with a Canadian accent.
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Ben Affleck, who directed and starred in the Hollywood film, acknowledges Argo emphasized more on the CIA’s role than Canada’s. “We had to pick a perspective … this is the side we haven’t seen,” Affleck said Wednesday.
Despite that, Affleck insists Canada played a vital role in the story. “It was incredibly important to me, even using that perspective, that people get how appreciative we were of Canada and that people understand the message of international co-operation.”
The original postscript to the film suggested the kudos Taylor – dubbed the “Canadian Caper” – received for his role in the real-life drama were undeserved in light of the CIA operation.
After outraged friends saw Argo at the Toronto International Film Festival last month and alerted Taylor, Affleck was soon in touch. The postscript was subsequently changed to note that the CIA “complemented efforts of the Canadian Embassy.”
The diplomat was diplomatic on Canada’s watered-down presence in the film. “The activity of the Canadian diplomats is at a more passive level than it was actually the case in reality,” Taylor tells Global National‘s Eric Sorensen.
But Argo is accurate, Taylor says. “(In the movie), the elements of the story are correct and there… It’s real events that took place – they’re not just created. At the same time, some poetic licence is used.”
He adds he harbours no hard feelings against Affleck. “Tony Mendez, the CIA agent played by Ben Affleck very effectively, came into play about 70 days after we had the six, and began to work with Ottawa on the scheme ‘exfiltration’.”
Canadians were at risk every day they protected the Americans, a time of high stakes, diplomatic pouches, and those fake passports, a fact Affleck is well aware of. “This is a movie about some people from one country who were in need, and folks from another country who stepped in and harboured them. This is about the great things that are possible from diplomacy… it’s about how diplomats put themselves in danger, sacrifice themselves.”
To no surprise, Taylor admits he was a little nervous about the whole ordeal, with no rules to follow. “It wasn’t in the diplomatic digest,” he jokes.
In a real revolution back then, as in the movie version now, Canadian diplomacy succeeded – quietly, in the background.
Follow Eric on Twitter: @EricSorensenDC
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