Argo

I recently went to the theater to see Ben Afflect's latest directorial effort, Argo (2012) and came away very much impressed. This is based on the story of how five embassy personnel were spirited out of Iran during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. It combines a real life historical situation with a somewhat amped up version of the thrilling escape. Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on Joshuah Bearman's 2007 article in Wired: "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran." Afflect did an excellent job of combing footage from that era with period costuming, locations, music, and props. The dedication to authenticity draws to mind recent historical-based films like The Baaden Meinhoff Complex and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. There are some great character actors in the cast as well: John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, and Kyle Chandler.