In November 1979, 35 years ago, a diplomatic crisis between Iran and America rocked the world as the US embassy in Tehran was stormed and its personnel taken hostage in what became known as the Iran Hostage Crisis. In a related event called the 'Canadian Caper,' six embassy staff managed to escape and were later rescued in a covert operation by the Americana and Canadian governments. The mission was the stuff Hollywood spy thrillers are made of - CIA operatives posed as a film producer and extracted the six American diplomats, who posed as part of the film crew.
In 2012, a semi-fictionalized version of the Canadian Caper was filmed by Hollywood. Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, swept the awards season winning, among other honours, the Best Picture Oscar.
To mark 35 years of the Iran Hostage crisis, the CIA - the CIA, for god's sake - tweeted a fact vs fiction lesson of sorts, listing out what Argo got wrong.
Here's a run-though of CIA's tweets:
Real vs reel Argo, lesson one:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson two:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson three:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson four:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson five:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson six:
Reel vs real Argo, lesson seven:
There was one thing, though, the film got right.
Lettign Ben Affleck film part of Argo in CIA headquarters near Washington DC? 'Best bad idea' they ever had.
Cheers to that.