So: wow.

I’m not sure where to fall on the issue that this film contains a ton of historical inaccuracies (which I will not list here because you either know them or know Wikipedia); on the one hand, there are aspects of this film that deserve to be treated truthfully for the sake of the people involved; on the other, I feel there should be a degree of dramatic licence permitted when it harms no-one. Yes, there was no tense car chase on the runway in reality, but on the other hand it was the nail-biting nature of that chase that left me in tears a couple of minutes later when they left Iranian airspace. So. Simply reporting the truth isn’t the job of filmmakers, unless they’re also journalists. This is a different beast.

Is no-one else bothered that Tate Donovan looks eerily like Jason Sudeikis at points (and, for that matter, Christopher Denham is basically a young Michael Sheen and Scoot McNairy is a hotter Giovanni Ribisi). That doesn’t tarnish their acting ability at all, I should add - they’re thinly sketched at times, but they’re all fantastic.

This was perfectly paced in a surprisingly considered way that a lot of films miss these days, either opting for breakneck action at the expense of exposure, or stupor-inducing monotony. That Affleck was snubbed for Best Director is a travesty of justice. Or something.

That animated opening was quite something, and unexpected. It’s a slight shame that the fact of the USA’s rocky and sometimes guilty history with the Iranian leadership was neglected once the film itself was underway, and it often ends up straying into swearing off an entire ethnic group, though I feel like it deserves something of a free pass in the fact that xenophobia towards Iran at the time was extreme, to say the least. A voice pleading for moderation would stand out as a bit, uh, anti-1979.

Really good, though. Problematic where the facts are concerned, but as a piece of filmmaking it’s stellar.