Why I won't be cheering for Argo.

In Argo, there was a scene that made me guffaw. Ken Taylor, Canadian Ambassador to Iran,(played by the ubiquitous Victor Garber) gives an order to a  Candian soldier in English. The solider answers back, "Oui, Monsieur Ambassadeur" It's a common code in American film-making: you can tell a Canadian, 'cause even though they sound like us, look like us and eat like us --they speak FRENCH. So they ain't like us at all.  Ben Affleck wanted his audience to be sure we weren't confusing our North Americans.

Argo is a great piece of storytelling. I spent most of it on the edge of my seat --right to the fictional end scene and despite the silly Canadian stereotyping (I mean what solider is going to answer in French to an order given by a superior in English?). The film is very, very, very loosely based on a true story. In reality, Ken Taylor, former Canadian ambassador to Iran, and his staff risked their own personal safety to get the stranded Americans out of Tehran. He was pretty miffed at Affleck (see here for the full story), and apparently he still is annoyed at Affleck. In any case, while I was mildly irked at the stupid Canadian accent jokes that peppered the "Argo" script, it's nothing that we Canadians can't take in stride (see Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans for some sweet revenge).   

Argo troubled me on a bigger, more important level. I guess what bothers me the most is that almost every single Iranian in that movie is portrayed as a shouty, crazed fundamentalist. A wide-eyed, screaming, spittle flying, gun-toting fundamentalist. Tony Burman, Ryerson journalism professor, and former head of Aljazeera English, discusses it in a much more eloquent way here  Argo feeds right into the expectations of the audience: Iran is the maniacal "Other". Oh, and they have nuclear bombs. Yeah.

A few years ago, I read Tony Wheeler's Badlands.  It documented his travels to the "axis of evil": Afghanistan, North Korea,  Iran. It wasn't particularly well written, but his assessment of Iran stuck out in my mind: their government sucks; the people are hospitable, kind and generous.

Lately, Iran has been in my thoughts again. Mostly because I've just finished teaching Justin Mashouf's  Warring Factions,  a documentary about being American-Iranian and American stereotypes of Iran, to my S3 (Grade 9 class) . Don't get me wrong,  I'm under no illusions about Iran's government and political/ religious machine; "Complicated" doesn't begin to describe it. But we can't assume that Ahmadinajad represents every single Iranian, just as it is absolute foolishness to say David Cameron represents every single Brit, or Stephen Harper represents every single Canadian.
  
My pupils and I were discussing the lessons we learnt from "Warring Factions." They came to the conclusion that the ordinary Iranians portrayed in that documentary wanted to avoid war, loved their country and were in essentials very similar to us, here in Scotland. Except that that the Iranian people are under constant barrage of propaganda from the West that says they are terrorists. Films like Argo that purport to tell a "true story" just perpetuate stereotypes and feeds the hawkish mentality that we see in the States. 

I hope Argo doesn't win best picture, though I suspect it might. I don't even want people to not watch it. But if you do, balance your impression of the Iranian people with some other perspectives. Read Persepolis ( Marjane Strapji's emotional graphic memoir about growing up during the Iranian revolution) or watch Mashouf's Warring Factions. Hopefully, you'll see Argo for what is really is: a piece of absolute fiction.