Argo: An Oscar for sneering at the British

Quite so, m'boy, quite so! I was, of course, tarnishing the good name of the French military regiments, and not those lime-popping misfits across the Channel.

:indeed:
 
Aoxomoxoa said:

Hollywood is at it again, there is nothing that cannot be distorted or simply made up when it comes to us Brits.


What does Hollywood have against the British? Once again on Oscar night, Tinsel Town gave warmly to us with one hand — while cynically taking away with the other.
The good news is that at least nine Britons will fly back across the Atlantic with coveted golden statues.
But the bad news is that Argo — the movie that won Best Film — is yet another piece of Hollywood’s Brit-bashing junk history that casts us in a poor light.
The film, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, tells the story of how the Canadian government and the CIA managed to rescue six American diplomats from the clutches of the Iranian students who occupied the U.S. embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Although the movie is a cracker — tense and terrifying — like so much that comes out Hollywood, Argo plays fast and loose with the facts. And unsurprisingly, the Brits are given a real pasting. For, according to the Affleck version of the rescue mission, the six embassy staff were refused refuge by British diplomats. ‘Brits turned them away,’ says a senior CIA character in the film.
You can imagine the outraged comments over industrial buckets of popcorn in movie theatres from Alabama to Alaska. ‘Goddamn Limeys! So that’s what we get for bailing them out during World War II.’
The truth, however, could not be more different. The British did give their American colleagues sanctuary. Far from being cowards, the Brits were heroes. Many of the British diplomats then stationed in Iran are still alive — and they’re fuming.
‘When I first heard about this film, I was really quite annoyed,’ says Sir John Graham, 86, who was our man in Tehran at the time of the crisis. Sir John is understandably concerned that Argo will become accepted as the definitive history of what happened. He may have a point.
Remember U-571 — the U-boat thriller set in World War II — which saw the Yanks, and not the British and the Poles, capture an Enigma coding machine and turn the course of the war? Or how about the abysmal piece of faux-history that was Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, which depicted the British as the rapacious, murderous oppressors of the noble and romantic Scots?
Who can forget Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, that effectively presented D-Day as an exclusively American effort?
The sad irony is that what really happened in Tehran in 1979 is just as thrilling as Argo, if not more so — and it involved astonishing British pluck.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284479/Oscar-winning-Argo-joins-long-list-films-bash-Britain-bending-truth-suit-Hollywood.html
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no offense, but how insecure are you guys?

boohooo a work of fiction had a one-off line about brits not letting them into the embassies :( :( :(
 
Dr. Krieger said:
no offense, but how insecure are you guys?

boohooo a work of fiction had a one-off line about brits not letting them into the embassies :( :( :(
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It's not a work of fiction though, is it? Well maybe I should rephrase that and say it shouldn't be a work of fiction. This actually happened for fuck's sake and to change the real events and make up shit instead is totally wrong. You Yanks get too much of your history from Hollywood already.

This group of six was eventually saved by the rescue mission organised by the Canadians and the CIA. After the rescue, the story remained secret, kept in classified files.

However, the diplomatic community knew the British — and others — had done their bit. A recently-released State Department Briefing Memorandum from February 6, 1980, states that the British embassy was involved in the rescue of the Americans.

Many of the British embassy staff from that time have seen Argo. ‘It does not bear all that much relation to the facts,’ observes Sir David Miers drily. ‘It is not a true story.’

Ben Affleck has acknowledged the film casts Britain in a bad light. ‘But I was setting up a situation where you needed to get a sense that these six people had nowhere else to go. It does not mean to diminish anyone,’ he said.

Such a defence cuts little ice with Sir John Graham. ‘I can’t see why the film-makers couldn’t have acknowledged that we and others did actually help the diplomats,’ he says. ‘It wouldn’t have ruined the drama at all.’
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nding-truth-suit-Hollywood.html#ixzz2M2S8B6w2
 
Superfreak said:
Tommy???
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Can you name any instances where US Marines saved Royal Marines as you have asserted previously? Unless you know better all six divisions of the Marines were in the Pacific theatre in WW2. I am going out now so that should give you enough time to find something.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Can you name any instances where US Marines saved Royal Marines as you have asserted previously? Unless you know better all six divisions of the Marines were in the Pacific theatre in WW2. I am going out now so that should give you enough time to find something.
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wow... english panties firmly bunched... I was fucking with you.... good lord.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
It's not a work of fiction though, is it? Well maybe I should rephrase that and say it shouldn't be a work of fiction. This actually happened for fuck's sake and to change the real events and make up shit instead is totally wrong. You Yanks get too much of your history from Hollywood already.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nding-truth-suit-Hollywood.html#ixzz2M2S8B6w2
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it's obv based on true events but it's been greatly exaggerated. it's not a documentary. it's entertainment.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
It's not a work of fiction though, is it? Well maybe I should rephrase that and say it shouldn't be a work of fiction. This actually happened for fuck's sake and to change the real events and make up shit instead is totally wrong. You Yanks get too much of your history from Hollywood already.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nding-truth-suit-Hollywood.html#ixzz2M2S8B6w2
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True, but to be fair, brits get way to much history from their plays and books and movies... So let's call it even and say that people prefer a more romantic past.
 
Dr. Krieger said:
it's obv based on true events but it's been greatly exaggerated. it's not a documentary. it's entertainment.
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Well if they just ignored the contribution of the people at the British Embassy, that's one thing. However it is just fucking outrageous to make out that the hostages were turned away by the Brits, if you can't see that then there's no hope for you. 'Knock, knock', 'Who's there?', 'Argo', 'Argo who?', 'Arr...go...fuck yourself.'


"Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away," says Jack O'Donnell, a senior CIA man played by Bryan Cranston in the film. Just one snag: Our Man in Tehran didn't do anything of the sort – nor did the New Zealanders.
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http://www.theweek.co.uk/film/oscars-2013/51635/anti-british-lie-heart-oscar-favourite-argo
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Well if they just ignored the contribution of the people at the British Embassy, that's one thing. However it is just fucking outrageous to make out that the hostages were turned away by the Brits, if you can't see that then there's no hope for you. 'Knock, knock', 'Who's there?', 'Argo', 'Argo who?', 'Arr...go...fuck yourself.'




]
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WOW that was hilarious! Keep em coming Cliffie. You are the belle of the ball alright. You should do standup.
 
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