Argo
Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 5:00AM 
I thought the movie Argo was worth watching even though it was clearly a propaganda piece to prepare us for the war on Iran. Here is how Wikipedia summarizes the film:
On November 4, 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, a group of young Iranian revolutionaries took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran in retaliation for the country's support of the recently deposed Shah. Although most of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, six evade capture and hide in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). With the escapees' situation kept secret, the State Department begins to explore options for "exfiltrating" them from Iran. CIA specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), brought in for consultation, points out the fundamental weaknesses in all of the proposals for how to do so, but is at a loss to suggest an alternative until he gets an idea while watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes on TV with his son: create a cover story that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, scouting "exotic" locations in Iran for a similar film.
Ben Affleck tried very hard to keep the propaganda part of the film under wraps. He begins the film by giving a history of the US’s rather gross interference in Iranian affairs. (He can’t even get that right as he confuses the difference between the parliamentary system of Iran with an elected presidential system.) He must have thought that repeating this history with the obvious corruption and brutality of the US surrogate, the Shah of Iran, would dampen the propaganda nature of the film. He failed in this because ultimately the attitude of the film can be summarized by my paraphrase of one CIA agent in Washington. “The Shah may be a bastard, but he is our bastard.” 
The dark swarthy Iranians as a stereotype could not be overcome. Even the character of the good Iranian maid could not overcome this stereotype, as the “students” were quite menacing.
Did Affleck plan a propaganda film? I doubt it. But that is what he made. How can I be certain? The response to the film by the audience tells me it had a great propaganda effect. The applause was rather loud. Another interesting point was the age of the audience. At 58 I was one of the younger members of the audience. While I did not applaud, I did join with the audience in not immediately getting up when the credits rolled. It was a movie that made you think.
I recommend you see the film. It might even be worth the theatre ticket price—just do not eat the popcorn.
Propaganda, War 
Reader Comments (1)
Affleck was quite embarrassed at the Toronto International Film Festival when he had to explain why the US and CIA were portrayed as the heroes of the affair when it was clearly Ken Taylor and the Canadian Embassy staff who deserved the credit. Affleck was pretty uncomfortable about it all and apparently added a section to his film at the beginning admitting that it was the Canadians that put their lives at risk for the most part in saving the American hostages. He even apologised to ambassador Ken Taylor (a Calgarian) for the incident.