Whenever a Hollywood movie claims to be inspired or based on a true story, it’s well worth taking that with a pinch of salt, when at least a touch of creative license is applied in the overwhelming majority of cases.
Take Ben Affleck’s Argo, for instance, which turned out to be a critical and commercial darling after earning $232 million at the box office before going on to win three Academy Awards from seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
However, many of the names involved in the real-life events blasted Argo for leaning too far into fiction at the expense of fact. The narrative is riddled with historical inaccuracies and scenes that never actually happened in real life, while there was some backlash aimed in leading man and director Affleck’s when he cast himself as Tony Mendez.
When the conversation surrounding representation and diversity in the industry was at fever pitch last year, veteran actor Edward James Olmos derided Argo‘s whitewashing of Mendez as “bullsh*t”. However, Mendez himself has admitted more than once that he’s got no issues with it at all, revealing he doesn’t even identify as Hispanic after losing his Mexican father at a young age and being raised in Nevada.
Regardless of your opinion on the matter, a lot of people have clearly been checking out Argo over the weekend, after the riveting drama managed to crack the Top 10 most-watched list on HBO Max, as per FlixPatrol.