"Argo" sees Affleck lost at sea Ben Affleck's latest movie "Argo" is based on the true story of a bold rescue during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. The CIA and the Canadian government join forces to rescue six Americans from Tehran, hidden by Canadian authorities, while 52 others sweated at gunpoint in the overrun US embassy. They concoct an elaborate, not to say hare-brained scheme to get the 6 out of the country. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art1.html . Of course, this being Hollywood, it works like a dream as the movie see-saws between high drama and knockabout dialogue, so the `true story` angle suffers collateral damage. You know, it's a really really funny movie, and it's a really really tense movie and those are both things I really like when I go to the movies and I thought this has kind of got something for everything. It's got the human sort of aspect of these people trapped in this space and trying to survive - almost the "Survivor" element of it. I thought it was a movie that could play to women and to men and I really got interested in this idea of trying to make a movie that's very real," says director and lead Affleck. It makes one long for the sensitivity and well-observed nuance of the writer Affleck's talents, but he has handed the job to others for this one, and does a perfectly good job driving the entertaining show along. But is this movie the outspokenly-Democrat Affleck getting his 10 cents-worth of the election campaign? "I wanted my Republican friends and my Democratic friends to be able to watch the movie equally and so I said "I'm going to show the facts and let people draw their own conclusions." I do think it's obviously relevant. You have a revolution in Iran that then has unintended consequences and the United States is asking itself "What's the appropriate way to insert ourselves in the Middle East?" But I don't provide an answer," he insists. So any any overtly political messages in the film are left for dead along with the locals who get in the good guys`way. "Argo," which also features Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin, is rolling out now and in November. More about: Iran, Thriller, USA