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Movie Review

Movie Review
Argo (2012)
The movie is based on a true story and was adapted from the book entitled “The Master of Disguise” that was written by Tony Mendez, who was an operative of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In 1979, there were Iranian activists who fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran to protest the decision of then President Jimmy Carter to give the Shah asylum America when the Iranian Revolution was currently in place. The 50 members of the embassy staff became hostages and six of them escaped and hid in the house of then Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor. The U.S. concealed any information about the location of the escapees and explored other means to exfiltrate them out of Iran. U.S. sought the help and expertise of Tony Mendez, who was part of the CIA and a renowned exfiltration specialist.
Mendez criticized the proposals and agreed to plan a cover story to help the 6 escapees to get out of Iran. He crafted a story that the 6 were Canadian filmmakers who went to Iran to look for exotic locations for their new science-fiction film. Mendez made it appear that he was the producer of a fake movie production “Argo”. As the escapees worked on their goal to leave Iran, the revolutionaries discovered the escape of the 6 individuals. Mendez, who pretended to be Argo’s producer went to Iran to hand over the counterfeit Canadian passports to the 6 escapees and rescued them. He was later awarded the Intelligence Star, for his efforts in the rescue mission, but only received the medal in 1997 to avoid media exposure. The rest of the hostages earned their freedom in 1981.
The agency involved in the film was the CIA. The CIA has a good and positive image in this film. The political change that the movie presented is that during times of war and revolution, many innocents citizens suffer. The government should create policies that will promote peace processes and avoid endangering innocent citizens. The film accurate was accurate in portraying the CIA and the issues involving it. The portrayal of the CIA is unbiased because the problems of the agency were exposed in the film. I will recommend this film because it shows the real story on how the CIA was able to accomplish the most daring rescue in the entire American history (Mendez and Baglio, 2012, p.1)
The Border Wall (2008)
The movie is based on a documentary on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when it attempted to build 670 miles of walls are to be situated on the 2000-mile U.S. southern border. The setting of the film is during the time Bush administration when DHS was under the helm of Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The film examines the effect of the wall that was built in San Diego during the 1990’s, and served as double fence to drive away undocumented aliens from entering the U.S. border. The local activists claimed that the militarization of the border and the walls aims to drive away the undocumented aliens to pass through a more perilous terrain that resulted to the deaths of 5000 individuals. However, such claim was refuted by Congressman Duncan Hunter, who argued that there was in fact, a decrease in the crime rate in San Diego County after the walls were built along the border. He said that the wall saved the lives of many when the crime rate dropped by 50 percent. He was also the author of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, claiming that the walls were legal.
The movie presented two sides of the story, the government’s statement and the people who opposed of the building of the border wall. The Defenders of Wildlife was a group that opposed the border wall by showing the filmmakers how the construction will ruin the beauty of the San Pedro River and the wildlife in the Southwest if the wall construction will continue. They challenged the legality of the Real ID Act of 2005, which granted the DHS secretary the power to build the wall. However, the Supreme Court of the refused to hear the case.
The legal change presented in the film is how a government official can abuse the power given to him in order to leave a legacy for the Bush administration. The film generated political response when it outraged the environmentalists and the Fish & Wildlife Service of the government who objected the building of the wall. The film was accurate in its portrayal of DHS and the abuse of power of the agency. I will recommend this film because it will show how people in the government can abuse their power and how the people who believe in their cause fight for what is right.

References:

Ewing, W. (2008). The Border Wall. Wayne Ewing Films DVD 75 minutes.
Mendez, A. and Baglio, M. (2012). Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History. London: Penguin.