# The SBHonline Community Daily > Books, Movies, and TV >  >  Argo

## GayleR

Go see it. Superb storytelling. Gripping. Loved it.

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## NHDiane

Gail - this one's on our radar, just waiting for a real rainy day.  It's getting some very good reviews.

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## JEK

We want to see it too if for no other reason to see little old McLean, VA streets in a supporting role.

http://mclean.patch.com/articles/mcl...-debut-in-argo

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## JEK

Saw it tonight -- great flick!


Tony Mendez, the CIA agent behind the real Argo
By The Reliable Source
 
Ben Affleck, center, with his Argo inspiration Tony Mendez, far left, and real-life house guests Kathleen Stafford, Bob Anders and Lee Schatz. At right are Pat Taylor and former Ambassador Ken Taylor (Keegan Bursaw/Embassy of Canada) Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were working the room briskly at the Canadian Embassy Wednesday night, while Bryan Cranston mingled in the middle of the crowd, happily chatting up any Breaking Bad fan who grabbed him. John Goodman said his hellos and ducked out early, but David Petraeus and Barry Meyer (top brass at the CIA and Warner Bros., respectively) lingered through the speeches. Meanwhile, a quiet, slight, bearded man stuck to the shadows at the side of the room, taking it in.

 
Mendez at the Argo premiere in Washington Wednesday. Behind him is a movie poster with Ben Affleck, who portrays him in the new film. (Cliff Owen/AP) This is an amazing evening, Tony Mendez said. This is not what spies do.

But this was, in fact, an evening that Mendez made happen. The 71-year-old retired CIA agent is the man who managed to sneak six U.S. diplomats out of Iran during the 1979-81 hostage crisis by having them pose as a fake crew for a fake movie. Hes played by Affleck in Argo, the rapturously reviewed new movie about the long-classified operation.

To be fair, it was also an evening that Canada made happen. It was Canadas ambassador to Iran and his wife who hid the Americans in their residence for three months, at great peril to their own lives, until Mendez could find a way to get them.

Canada and the United States have always had each others backs, the partys host, Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer, told the room. Thats an important message thats as important today, he said, citing the nations joint resolve to not tolerate the acquisition of a nuclear bomb by Iran.

 
Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer with Ben Affleck at the embassys reception for Argo. (Keegan Bursaw/Embassy of Canada) What this movie is about is cooperation, said director-star Affleck, in his turn to play statesman at the podium, the great things that are possible from diplomacy.

Elsewhere in the room: Huma Abedin  the top Hillary Clinton aide, who facilitated the movies filming at the State Department  and husband Anthony Weiner, only rarely seen on the D.C. social circuit since his resignation from Congress. Also: Several veterans of the real-life Argo operation, including the brave ambassadorial couple, Ken and Patricia Taylor, and three of their house guests, as the hidden U.S. diplomats were politely dubbed. As a house guest, Lee Schatz couldnt really speak to the accuracy of the movie: So much of it is a piece of the experience we didnt participate in, he said. But they really captured the tension on the streets of Tehran  much like it is now across the Middle East, he said.

Mendez, who now lives in rural western Maryland and has written three books about his CIA years, worked as a consultant on the film. Who would his wife have cast as him?

Tommy Lee Jones, said Jonna Mendez, herself a CIA veteran. But now everyones too old. Bens exactly the right age.


Bryan Cranston, left, as Jack ODonnell and Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in "Argo." (Claire Folger/Warner Bros. via AP) Was it strange to see his story on the screen? Absolutely, he said. The 30-foot-tall face of Ben Affleck, saying My name is Tony Mendez? And even though he knew the ending  lived it, in fact  it scared the bejeezus out of me. I didnt think they were going to make it out of there!

After all, the movie takes a few liberties with his story. Theres a car chase that never happened, clashes that are pure inventions. But a man who resorted to Hollywood subterfuge to execute his operation is okay with the Hollywood veneer.

It adheres to the spirit of the story, he said. In Tehran, they felt worried  but in a movie, you need to externalize that worry via action. Music and lights and all that stuff play into a movie. Its an entertainment.

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## lloyd

A great moment n our two countries' shared history. Ken Taylor is a national hero up here( almost as famous as the 72 Team Canada that beat the Russkies 40 years ago this fall!!)
May we always " have each others' backs"
The " Canadian Caper" is part of our /your national identity

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## Eve

I am saving this one for the luxury level.

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## katva

This is one I will definitely go see---have heard rave reviews from everyone who has seen it.

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## NYCFred

> This is one I will definitely go see---have heard rave reviews from everyone who has seen it.



Add another. Saw it last nite.

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## Eve

Really good

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## amyb

Nice avatar

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## Eve

Me?  Thanks.  Although maybe you mean NYCFred. 
That is at the new Legal's on the waterfront in Boston.  Getting excited Amy?  5 weeks seems like forever.

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## amyb

Very excited and tingling and changing plans!

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## Eve

What plans are you changing?  Because of the storm?  If we weren't locked into the Christopher dates I would pull it closer.

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## amyb

Leaving, God willing, NY on Monday morning instead of Wednesday morning

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## lloyd

Di*plo*mat was un*sung hero


The Globe and Mail (Ottawa/Quebec Edition)
5 January, 2013





By
1979, it was well known in Canadian immigration circles that John Sheardown was the man you wanted in tight situations. The quiet immigration officer accessed hidden reserves of calm and ingenuity when faced with armed guards or unwelcoming foreign officials. Who better for the task of heading up the department’s Tehran office on the cusp of a revolution?
Sheardown, who died on Sunday at 88, quickly proved to be the right man for the job. His wife recalls being yanked from their car by revolutionary guards at one particularly hostile checkpoint in Tehran. The armed men refused to accept their passports as proper identification. Recognizing that the guards could not read, Sheardown pulled a much-stamped piece of yellow paper from his wallet and announced in his confident low voice, “Khomeini!”
The men immediately set the couple free. “That was the magic word. We piled back in the car and off we went,” said Zena Sheardown. “The paper turned out to be nothing but an expired Jamaican driver’s licence my husband had from a previous posting.”
Weeks after the checkpoint incident, on Nov. 9, 1979, Canada’s foreign corps would encounter one of the thorniest issues in its history. It arrived in the form of a phone call from Bob Anders, a U.S. consular official who had evaded a mass hostage-taking at the U.S. embassy. Luckily for Anders, the person who answered was Sheardown, who, as his wife put it, “could be a bit of a daredevil, someone who would jump first and think about the consequences later.”
Anders described his predicament. He and some others had been dodging militants for five days unable to find a decent hideout with British or Swedish diplomats. Could Canada help?
“Why didn’t you call sooner?” the Canadian responded.
When Anders explained that as many as five other Americans were also looking for shelter, Sheardown didn’t hesitate. “Bring ’em all,” he said, never stopping to think what his superiors would say.
It was the start of the Canadian Caper, a three-month concealment of the American house guests, followed by a high-stakes rescue mission recounted in the Hollywood film Argo.
While the movie featured a front-and-centre role for Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, who approved the plan and hid two of the Americans at his residence, John Sheardown had no place in the credits.
“That was a shame, because without him, I don’t know what would have happened to us,” said Mark Lijek, who, along with his wife, was among the escapees who stayed at the Sheardown home. “If the reception had been more tepid from the Canadians, we would have likely tried to make it on our own for a few more days until we were caught. The way he took our call, it wasn’t an invitation, it was more like a command. He had that military bearing all his life.”
Born in Sandwich, Ont., (later absorbed by Windsor) on Oct. 11, 1924, John Vernon Sheardown joined the Canadian Air Force at age 18. He flew scores of Lancaster bomb runs in the Second World War. After one run, he barely managed to limp his flack-riddled plane back to England. With the Lancaster losing power, he told his crew to bail out. He tried to wrestle the aircraft under control before opting to leap at the last minute. His chute barely had time to open and he broke both legs upon impact.
“It was pitch black and he crawled down to a pub, beat on the door. The pub owner came down with a shotgun and John explained he was a Canadian airman who was injured and needed a drink,” said James Bissett, a friend and former boss of Sheardown in the immigration foreign service. “They propped him up on the pool table and gave him some Scotch. John told me the pub owner then asked him to pay for it.”
He stayed in the armed forces after the war, serving in South Korea, before joining Canada’s immigration service around 1962. Jumping among posts in London, Glasgow, New Delhi and Los Angeles, he became known for his ever-present pipe and old-fashioned manners.
When his future wife encountered him for the first time in London, she asked a friend who the well-dressed man was. “Why, that’s John Sheardown, the kindest man on Earth,” the friend replied. “If he was down to his last penny and he thought you needed it, he would give it to you.” The two were married in Los Angeles in 1975, his second marriage.
His kindness and resourcefulness never wavered amid the chaos of revolutionary Iran, where the couple was posted just two months before militants seized 52 hostages at the U.S. embassy. They were under constant surveillance from mysterious figures across the street as well as their own gardener, a member of the komiteh revolutionary security force. They proved no match for Sheardown, who was quick with a cigar and a jovial nudge out the door every time the gardener let himself in, and brought garbage to work to conceal the excess waste their house guests were producing. When the home’s owner began showing potential buyers around the place, he arranged for the Americans to be whisked away.
His six house-guests never lacked for good food, cigarettes or Ballantine’s, Sheardown’s Scotch of choice.
“We felt guilty sometimes that we were living in the Four Seasons compared to the hostages downtown,” Lijek said. “We had formal dinners every night with wine and everything else. He made sure we had a U.S. Thanksgiving. He even got us presents for Christmas.”
Today, the Lijeks keep Canadian lapel pins in the little brass box the Sheardowns gave them that Christmas.
The Sheardowns left Tehran days before CIA operatives swooped in to remove the escapees disguised as a feature-film crew. They went on to postings in Hungary and Sri Lanka before Sheardown retired in 1989. When the Canadian government awarded him the Order of Canada, he refused to accept it until his wife was also recognized, a showdown he eventually won.
Sheardown had Alzheimer’s disease, according to his wife.
“I will remain in possession of his ashes,” she said when asked if a funeral is being planned. “He wanted us to go together. We’ve been through so much together. We were always buddies. We always looked out for each other.”


© Copyright 2012 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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## andynap

Nice story Lloyd

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## amyb

A very special diplomatic couple. good article. Thanks for sharing and bringing the rest of that story to light.

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## lloyd

His wife was on CBC radio this week,just after his death,telling the story( which could have made a good movie better!).She recounted that, just after the movie came out,Ben Affleck called her in Ottawa( Sheardown himself was suffering from Alzheimer's badly,at that point), and apologized for leaving them out of the film,citing " budgetary reasons"! But,that's Hollywood,and with Sheardown's death,the whole story is again front and centre
The NYT had an equally good piece yesterday,recounting what really happened

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