"Iran's State TV Slams Argo as 'CIA Advertisement'" PanARMENIAN.Net. N.p., 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
This article tells of the Iranian reaction to the film Argo. Iran’s Slate TV dismissed Argo as an “advertisement for the CIA” and some Iranians believe that it was a political statement by the United States for the way it portrayed the hostage crisis. There was a Tehran City Council member that said the film shows the situation as being much more violent than it actually was, particularly in the scenes of the mobs. This City Council member also believed it should have been mentioned that these angry crowds shown in the movies were mostly students. There was also an Iranian news station that called the Oscar “politically motivated” since First Lady Michelle Obama was present via video link to present the best picture prize. This article also quotes an Iranian teacher that was present during the crisis as saying, “I know Hollywood usually changes reality to make it attractive for movie lovers, but more or less it was close to the realities then." Iran’s state-run film industry boycotted the Oscars in 2012 because of a video clip made in the U.S. that criticized the Prophet Muhammad and set off protests across the Muslim world.
The difference in opinion in this article is something I find very interesting. On one hand you have a City Council member saying the violence is exaggerated and the only people in the mobs were students. On the other hand you have a teacher that experienced these events first-hand saying that this film is an accurate portrayal of what happened. This adds another political element to the film. The last thing that I found interesting about this article was the fact that Michelle Obama helped to present the award for Argo. I personally do not think that was the smartest move on the United States’ part as this movie has proven to be very racially controversial. This small act can be taken as a sign that the government was backing this film in which Iranians are negatively portrayed.