‘Argo’ writer has no idea what he’s talking about: Ex-Canada envoy

Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the anti-Iran American film Argo, saying that the screenwriter has “no idea what he’s talking about, AVA diplomatic reports.“The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he’s talking about,” Taylor said during an audience with Ryerson University students in Toronto on Thursday, CBC reports.

Argo heads into the Oscars later this month as a nominee for best picture, with Terrio up for a best adapted screenplay Oscar.

The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Taylor, whose role is played by Canadian actor Victor Garber in the movie, was Canada’s ambassador to Iran in 1979 when the alleged operation took place.

He criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the “black and white” portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn’t quite right.”

The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn’t portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”

The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.

Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.

Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.

In mid-January, Iran announced plans to mount a big cinematic project on the 1979 US embassy incident to give a true image of the historical event distorted in Argo.

Iranian filmmaker and actor Ataollah Salmanian is slated to re-present the story as an appropriate response to Affleck’s blockbuster and ahistorical film.

The Iranian version titled The General Staff chronicles the story of the 20 American hostages who were delivered to the United States by Iran’s revolutionaries.