Uh no, When the historic rescue happened, the world believed that the entire plan was executed by the Canadian government, which wasn’t completely true. But Ben Affleck goes so far in the other direction, that the poor Canadians in Argo quite unduly take a complete backseat role. Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, the Canadian people have skills aside from ice-hockey and beer chugging.
More exaggerations from the actual event::
Halfway through the film, the American group is out and about in a local marketplace pretending to be a film crew. Here, a very tense scene takes place, where their lives in the bazaar appear to be in peril. None of this actually happened, of course.
While in reality, the group’s tickets to Zurich were purchased in advance by the Canadian ambassador’s wife, the film shows a different truth for dramatic effect. It is another case of Argo creating drama when there was none and inadvertently downplaying the role of the Canadian government. (And Americans wonder why the Canadians aren’t always very fond of their neighbours.)
When the group is finally exiting Iran, they face a very jittery encounter with the boarding officials at the airport. It is an excellent scene that displays how the love of cinema knows no borders, yet it was another piece that was completely invented.
When the group is finally on the plane, and very close to tasting freedom, they are chased by the Iranian military that is ready to shoot their aircraft down. As you may have suspected from the formulaic nature of this rather annoying finale, it was also another segment in the film that was entirely fabricated.
In fact, here is what Mark Lijek, one of the six actual people rescued during the operation, had to say:
“The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador’s residence in Berne. It was that straightforward.”
