Argo: Propaganda?

After viewing Argo, I took my regular lap around the usual film websites, seeing what critics and fans thought of the film to see differing opinions and if I had missed anything.  From rotten tomatoes and metacritic I saw positive reviews, which I tended to agree with if, although as enthusiastically as some critics.   However, when I headed to the message boards on IMDB I was pleasantly surprised to see plenty of hate.

Some of the hate came from the film’s recent best picture win.  I would agree with most of these posters who were surprised at the win.  I enjoyed the film and thought it was very well done, but I didn’t see it as anything groundbreaking or remarkable, which is what usually comes to mind when I think Best Picture (although that is certainly not always the case).  I didn’t share as much hate as many irate posters, but I could understand the arguments of the more descriptive contributors who managed to include more than one sentence filled with swears and poor spelling.

The hate I could not understand, however, came from people who claimed Argo was a piece of pure propaganda.  Terms like “one-sided” and “conspiracy” were being thrown about quite freely, with arguments ranging from fairly coherent to paranoid.  The User Review on the front page was entitled “Vomit enducing propaganda”, and predictably did not come with a very good rating but instead with some cleverly worded hatred and a shallow review.

Classic Films That Could Be Remade Well

SPOILERS

Let me start by saying that it is always controversial (and usually heresy) to suggest remaking a classic film, because, well, how can you improve on a classic the second time around?  For a film such as The Godfather, which is about as perfect as a film gets, any attempt at a remake nearly as good would be ill-fated.  That is why Hollywood usually remakes foreign films that people won’t see because they hate subtitles and funny accents, or instead take fan favorites such as Total Recall and Red Dawn, strip away all the charm/intelligence, and replace them with shiny objects, explosions, and Chris Hemsworth.  So the point of this list is not to suggest films that Hollywood should bastardize, or to say that the remakes would be undeniably better, but simply to point out classic films that could be remade in a different direction, and still turn out to be solid films.

Oldboy

No, this film isn’t old enough to be a classic, and yes, it is already being remade so this is cheating, but I’ll use this example to ease people into this list and explain more of what my criteria is.

Great Films That I Will Never Watch Again

SPOILERS

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

This is a great film, and I watched it at a time in my life where I could really relate to the protagonist, McMurphy.  I was in high school and maybe I wasn’t dealing with anything truly important in life, but I had the anti-authoritarian spirit in me, and saw bravery in McMurphy’s actions.

I loved the story of how McMurphy battled with Nurse Ratched and the dysfunctional institution.  He didn’t always succeed, and wasn’t always rational or honest, but that just made him more human and his victories more impressive, including his final victory where he inspires Chief to escape.