下午去看了場好看的電影　ＡＲＧＯ，中譯［亞果出任務］，其實是根據真實事件而拍. 1979年11月4日美國駐德黑蘭大使館遭伊朗革命份子占領,52人淪為人質,但有六名美國外交官當天趁亂逃離大使館,躲進加拿大大使官邸. 由於隨時可能被發現而斬首,且加拿大大使館也即將關閉,故這六人必須盡早營救出境.

中情局出動敵後撤離專家東尼.曼德斯(班艾佛列克飾),想出不可思議的計謀,偽造要拍攝中東場景的科幻電影,隻身進入伊朗要把六人當成電影劇組人員帶出伊朗. 我曾在報社處理國際新聞多年,伊朗人質事件是當年的大事,1979年秋天,我還應美國國務院邀請到美國訪問一個月,回程經歐洲,結果兩個月後就發生伊朗人質事件.看電影時,對當時的場景印象深刻. 但我從來不知道,有六名美國外交官是如此驚險的逃離伊朗.

這部電影值得一看.據報導,它被看好角逐明年的奧斯卡金像獎. 以下是回家後在網上找這電影資料時的收獲.

東尼曼德茲－作者 東尼曼德茲是退休的中情局官員，也是享譽國際的作家和得獎畫家。他目前在馬里蘭州佔地40英畝的鄉間農場生活和工作。 東尼曼德茲出生在內華達州，於1965年進入中情局的技術服務部。25年來，他一直從事臥底工作，經常出國，參與過冷戰時期一些最重要的祕密行動。在他朋友面前，他只是一名為美軍工作的沉靜官員。 在整個事業生涯中，東尼曼德茲一路爬升到中情局的主管階級。他和他的屬下負責替幾千名祕密特務改變身分和外型，使他們能有效偽裝，在世界各地安全行動。

1980年1月，東尼曼德茲因在伊朗人質危機期間成功策劃和執行拯救六名美國外交官的逃亡行動，獲頒英勇的情報之星獎。30幾年後，這個故事改編成電影《亞果出任務》。 東尼曼德茲於1990年11月退休時，他獲頒中情局的功績情報獎章及兩張優異證書。7年後，在中情局50週年慶時，他從50年來的好幾萬人中脫穎而出，躋身為最佳50名中情局官員之一，獲頒先鋒大獎章，這項榮譽表揚他是「因行為、榜樣或進取心……有助於塑造中情局史的官員」。 東尼曼德茲的第一本著作《偽裝大師》出版於1999年11月。他的第二本著作《Spy Dust》是跟他妻子喬娜合寫，出版於2002年9月。他最近跟麥特貝格里歐合寫《ARGO: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled off the Most Audacious Rescue in History》，完整重述在電影《亞果出任務》中描寫的行動，才剛出版。 東尼曼德茲繼續繪畫和演講，也擔任美國情報圈的顧問，並刊登供情報人員閱讀的文章。他和妻子是華府國際間諜博物館的創始成員。 在中情局技術服務部60週年慶時，現任中情局局長的大衛佩卓斯上將選出東尼曼德茲是最優秀的3位技術服務部官員之一，因為他們的貢獻使中情局改觀。 亞果出任務》幕後花絮 故事本身就非常引人注目的《亞果出任務》，幕後有更多令人意想不到的精采拍片過程！ ________________________________________

故事背景 1980年，第六片廠製作公司大力宣傳一個新的電影計劃，它集合了一部賣座科幻片該有的各種元素，包括太空船、外星人、動作和冒險，場景在一個不毛又遙遠的星球，海報上寫著「宇宙大戰」，不過這部史詩電影從未獲得電影公司老闆的許可。 不料，國家的統帥卻核准了這個電影計劃。 30年後，班艾佛列克自導自製自演電影《亞果出任務》，就是改編自這個真實故事，描述一場拯救六名美國人逃離伊朗的臥底任務，就發生1979年震驚全世界的德黑蘭人質事件之後，當時那裡的美國大使館遭到侵佔。 這六人驚險地避開被伊朗革命軍囚禁的人質，然後躲進加拿大大使肯泰勒的官邸內，這位大使冒著一切風險幫助這群美國人，甚至在其他人背棄他們時也繼續支持他們。不過這群所謂的「住客」隨時都處於被發現和被捕捉的危險，下場則不堪設想。如今因為被時間的逼近，中情局最頂尖的敵後撤離專家東尼曼德茲想出了一個不同凡響卻異想天開的脫逃計劃。 班艾佛列克表示：「東尼跟著名的好萊塢化妝師約翰錢伯斯是朋友，他知道電影劇組出國拍片是可行的方案，能藉機到世界各地，於是他突發奇想一個絕對沒人會想到的主意。」 這個計劃就是讓這六人假裝是去勘景的加拿大電影製作團隊，然後再飛出伊朗，講起來就這麼簡單，但事實上可能比登天還難。東尼曼德茲強調：「這是一場沒有規則的遊戲，危險至極，而最危險的是我們得交涉斡旋的對象變幻莫測，誰也無法預料一旦被抓會有什麼下場，無論是對我們或對那些已被押為人質都是令人不敢預期的後果。」 在現今這種資訊即時的年代，似乎無法想像這整場行動一直維持最高機密狀態，直到 1997年柯林頓總統解除其機密性。令人驚訝地，甚至在東尼曼德茲於2000年個人著作《偽裝大師》中重述這個事件，以及之後喬許貝爾曼在「Wired」雜誌的文章中再度詳述這個事件，多數人對於這個故事仍幾乎一無所知或無動於衷，甚至連班艾佛列克都承認：「我瞭解，這聽起來十分荒謬，似乎令人匪夷所思，不過事實上它確實發生過，這使得這個故事更引人入勝。」 最初由製片葛蘭海斯洛夫和喬治庫隆尼注意到喬許貝爾曼的文章〈大逃亡〉，編劇克里斯泰利歐受託把這場拯救行動寫成一齣電影劇本，他決定研究這場行動的來源。克里斯泰利歐並與於1990年從中情局退休的東尼曼德茲相約見面。 葛蘭海斯洛夫和喬治庫隆尼在看過2010年劇情片《竊盜城》之後，他們就瞭解班艾佛列克會對哪種題材有興趣。葛蘭海斯洛夫表示：「班擁有很棒的故事感，他知道如何運用攝影機來講述故事。他也具有強烈的觀點，這對於任何電影導演來說可能是最重要的特點。此外，他還懂得如何建立高潮，能超越我們的想像，為《亞果出任務》帶來更冒險驚悚的面向。」而本片製作群最大的挑戰之一，就是必須把生與死的戲劇性及機智的喜劇性並置。 葛蘭海斯洛夫說明地表示：「一開始很嚴肅，然後調性改變，尤其是場景拉到好萊塢之後。我們想要《亞果出任務》帶點詼諧的風味，但是一定要以連貫的方式加以結合。到最後，我感覺我們找到適當的平衡點，而這也印證了班的導演功力。」 班艾佛列克補充表示：「幽默感是這齣劇本中的一大要素，但在處理上卻是最困難的部分。我的主要關注是，必須確定笑料不會破壞危機感和真實感。很幸運地，我們找來亞倫阿金和約翰古德曼來演繹大多的喜劇面向，他們的所有表現在誠信態度當中仍保有一股幽默感，但絕不會曲解他們的信念。」 克里斯泰利歐以這部電影的最後時刻作為例子，說明電影製作需如何利用小說化的事件來描述真實的情緒：「我跟東尼談完話，並讀了住客對於脫逃經過的描述，我感覺那些時刻多麼排山倒海又令人痛快，不過要在電影中複製這些人物的情緒就需要超越文字，情節必須很緊湊，這樣他們搶救過程才會感覺歷歷在目，也才能引起觀眾的共鳴。」 班艾佛列克跟卡司群和創意團隊密切合作，在時間上和空間上達成高度的寫實感。他和攝影指導羅德里哥普里托採取獨特的拍攝風格，能夠傳達出1970年代晚期和1980年代的時代氛圍，並在華府、好萊塢和伊朗的環境中建立起明顯的視覺區隔。製作設計雪倫西摩爾和服裝設計賈桂琳魏斯特則檢視照片和資料影片，以重現那個時代屬於不同場景的外觀風貌。 葛蘭海斯洛夫認為，班艾佛列克擁有製片群在這個角色上看到的許多特質：「班本身具有一種沉靜的強度，這正符合我們在東尼曼德茲身上看到的特點。他也非常聰明，這個角色就需要感覺很聰明。還有很重要的，他看起來要能控制住情況，必要時也能發號施令。再說，班的個性很風趣，這在傳達出那種招牌的一本正經幽默時就很有效果，尤其是東尼去好萊塢時。」 電影選角 在替片中六名美國人選角時，班艾佛列克透露：「我的辦公室裡放著這些人的本尊照片，因為我想要隨時提醒自己他們的真實模樣。不過更重要的是，我想要找到願意冒險、願意即興演出的好演員，要能夠傳達出我想要達成的那種真實感。」 這六名住客的卡司組合包括：泰特唐納文飾演鮑伯安德斯，是這群人中的實際領導人；史古特麥奈利飾演喬史塔福，是這六人當中唯一會講流利波斯語的人；凱莉畢許飾演喬的妻子凱西；克里斯多夫丹漢和可莉杜瓦飾演另一對夫妻馬克和柯拉李傑；以及羅利寇克蘭飾演李史查茲。 班艾佛列克不僅要這六位演員飾演各自的角色，還要他們親身體驗，感受所飾演的角色處在何種環境。因此在主要攝影開始之前，他把他們隔離在一戶住家中1週，這個地方在後來開拍時作為加拿大大使的官邸，房子也裝潢成那個時期的風格，演員們被要求穿著那個年代的服裝。為了使他們更進一步沉浸在片中的時代氛圍，班艾佛列克還嚴禁他們與外界聯繫，不准他們身上帶著任何電腦、手機或任何電子產品。」少了現代事物的干擾，他們只能彼此聊天。班艾佛列克想讓他們相處時變得自在與自然。要『演出』那種親密感並不容易，需要火花和投緣的感覺，身體會感到放鬆，姿勢會更隨意，互相對話時的神情也會不同，他想要看到大家在同一艘船上的共生感。 班艾佛列克表示：「我們找來了許多出眾的演員，他們都想要參與這部電影。我認為這反映出這齣劇本的高度品質及這個故事的無與倫比。」 電影幕後 針對大使官邸的拍攝場面，班艾佛列克主要是使用高品質的手持攝影機，他表示：「我不想要有太明顯的手持感，所以我告訴攝影師要避免晃動或突然伸縮鏡頭。另一方面，我先要求演員照劇本演出幾次，然後要他們開始即興演出，這樣的結果就是攝影師也是即興演出，你可能會期待某人說話，但後來是另一人說話，於是這種不斷轉變注意力的感覺就像是平常人們對話時的感覺。」 而華府拍攝的部份，他覺得就不須使用手持攝影機，而是用移動鏡頭，這樣動作就會很流暢和平穩。然後是好萊塢的場面，我加入許多推拉的變焦鏡頭，並從直昇機或車上拍攝，這是1970年代常見的一種技巧。色彩則是更飽和，所以在攝影上，每個場景都有獨特的風貌。 本片製作設計雪倫西摩爾和服裝設計賈桂琳魏斯特，以較為有形的方式建立起那個時代的氛圍和背景。借助於研究員麥斯達利的資料搜集，他們鑽研大量的照片和成堆的平面媒體報導，也為此觀看好幾小時的電視新聞影片和老電影。 製作群知道全片不可能在伊朗實景拍攝，因此他們選擇鄰近的國家土耳其，並以伊斯坦堡取代電影中的德黑蘭。伊斯坦堡連結歐洲和亞洲，是全世界唯一橫跨兩大洲的城市，這裡也當作電影中東尼曼德茲的過境點，描繪他在伊朗領事館取得簽證的經過。 而在拍攝古城的場面時，伊斯坦堡最雄偉的兩個地標藍色清真寺與聖索菲亞大教堂也一併入鏡，班艾佛列克表示：「聖索菲亞大教堂是很棒的地方，先是教堂，後來是清真寺，現在變成博物館，所以它確實代表文化的交會。」 製作團隊在拍攝一處大型空間中，使用了幾十盞環形吊燈當作照明，那些燈泡在近幾年已全換成螢光省電燈泡，但這樣卻造成光線過於強烈，更不用提1980年時根本沒有這種燈泡。於是工作人員通宵趕工，把超過4,000顆燈泡換掉，才符合製作需求的較柔色光線。 全片最大挑戰的場面是美國大使館羅斯福大門前愈演愈烈的示威暴動。這場戲是在巴奇柯住宅區的足球場拍攝，場內可容納超過1,300人，所有人都以波斯語咆哮著反美口號，現場漸強的叫喊聲促成了這場震耳欲聾的高潮戲。設計這一大群臨演的衣服尤其是個艱難任務，因為賈桂琳魏斯特不僅要準確反映出那個時代，也要傳達出吻合的社會風俗。 為了使觀眾能在這場突發的騷亂中彷彿身歷實境，班艾佛列克安排幾名扮成臨演的攝影人員混進人群，讓他們拿著16釐米攝影機隨機拍攝影片。把超8與16釐米攝影機兩種攝影機拍下的鏡頭結合，看起來就像是真實的影像，超越電視上看到的那些資料影片的品質，以全新的畫面呈現在螢幕上。 而在華府拍攝時，演員和製作人員很榮幸且很難得地獲准進入位於維吉尼亞州蘭利市的真正中情局總部。班艾佛列克表示：「那棟大樓具有一種有趣的兩元性，因為你先是走在看似平淡無奇的走道上，然後你就看到一扇門上面標示著『反恐小組』，確實令人印象深刻。我走過那些標誌，並看到一面牆上佈滿星星，那是為了紀念因公殉職的中情局人員，那一刻令我感動不已。因此，我在電影裡才特別設計一個鏡頭，是東尼走過那一面佈滿星星的牆，我們想要觀眾看到那個具有紀念性的畫面。」 不過製作團隊必須利用數位技術移除其中一些星星，因為那些星星的年份晚於電影中發生的事件。還有值得注意的是，有些星星沒有標出殉職人員的名字，因為他們的任務迄今仍被視為機密。 主要攝影完成之後，班艾佛列克跟剪輯威廉高登柏合作，把在各個不同地點拍攝的鏡頭交織在一起。 電影配樂 班艾佛列克也瞭解到音樂能作為連結故事中三個不同世界的結構元素，亞歷山大戴斯培的配樂也因運而生，班艾佛列克表示:「我們需要找到一種能夠貫穿整個故事的主題音樂，不過要用不同的樂器和節拍演奏，但終究仍是同樣一首音樂。亞歷山大非常擅長創造出破格的非典型配樂，並結合稀有的樂器，其中許多是來自中東，不過他很厲害，那些音樂不會感覺太直接或太俗套，但一聽到你就好像立刻置身於那些異國地方。」 班艾佛列克更表示：「《亞果出任務》很刺激、懸疑又駭人，但同時也很有趣又富有娛樂性。以更深的層面而言，這個故事本身就極具力量，尤其是這項事實已隱瞞世人這麼多年，該是時候我們能夠自豪地揭露這些無名英雄的正義之舉。」 'Argo': Former ambassador Ken Taylor sets the record straight Published on Sunday October 07, 2012 Share on twitterShare on facebook GREGORY PAYAN/GREGORY PAYAN FOR THE TORONTO STARFormer Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, at his New York home, has been in the private sector for almost 30 years. Jim Coyle Feature Writer 26 Comments NEW YORK—It hasn’t been unusual over the last 20 years, when Ken Taylor returns to his home in New York from abroad, for a U.S. customs inspector to look at his passport, glance up, back at the photo and name, and say, “Hey, I studied you in high school!” The experience always impresses two things on Canada’s former ambassador to Iran. One, even for celebrated international heroes, time passes. And two, that for his role in rescuing six U.S. diplomats in 1980 after the tumultuous days of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution, he has a place in history. It’s a place well earned by Taylor and his colleagues at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran — who put their lives on the line to harbour the half-dozen diplomats who slipped away from the U.S. Embassy as it was besieged by Iranian militants who took more than 60 Americans hostage and held most under harsh conditions for more than a year. That’s why Taylor is, understandably, a little touchy about the new Ben Affleck movie Argo to be released this week, in which Canada’s role all but vanishes while the CIA and one of its agents, played by Affleck, become stars of the show. Taylor, still fit, fashionable and unflappable at 77, understands full well that Argo is Hollywood, not history. But, as he told the Star at his Upper East Side apartment building in Manhattan, he also knows that for those under age 45 or so, the hostage-takings of 1979, and Canada’s courageous support for its neighbour, “is a part of history that they may only vaguely remember.” For them, he said, the movie will probably “be the story.” And the movie, he said, is a big deal. “You cannot go around New York without seeing this. It’s on buses. It’s on a three-storey building in Soho. They’re spending a lot of money. They’re banking on an Academy Award.” That’s why Taylor is happy — and he’s still sufficiently famous to be getting media calls from all over the world — to politely “offer some interpretation of what went on in reality, rather than in Hollywood play time.” “The movie’s fun, it’s thrilling, it’s pertinent, it’s timely,” he said. “But look, Canada was not merely standing around watching events take place. The CIA was a junior partner.” Not only was that analysis demonstrably true, the period was hardly one of glory for U.S. intelligence and military operations. The CIA was blind to rising threats to the Shah’s regime in Iran. And the so-called “Eagle Claw” rescue operation aimed at freeing the remaining hostages in April 1980 ended in flaming fiasco in the Iranian desert with the death of eight American commandos. In buffing up America’s “tarnished” image from the time, Argo tries to do what the CIA agent, Antonio Mendez, accused Iranian extremists of in his book on which the movie is based. “Much like actors in a Hollywood movie,” he wrote, “the militants saw themselves as the heroes and expected the whole world to see them as such.” On Nov. 4, 1979, outraged that the despised Shah had been admitted to the United States for medical care after fleeing the country, thousands of Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Sixty hostages were seized in the embassy. Three were confined at the Foreign Ministry. (Thirteen women and black hostages were later released on the grounds they represented the oppressed of America.) But a handful had slipped away, out of the U.S. consular office into the rainy streets of Tehran. Most were quickly captured by the Revolutionary Guard. Six weren’t. Of these, five were taken in a few days later as soon as they called Canadian consular official John Sheardown for help. A sixth, who hid out for weeks with a Swedish diplomat, joined his countrymen a few weeks later. The Canadian response was as unhesitating as it was high-risk. For three months, it was Taylor and his colleagues who housed the six Americans, who moved them around Tehran when the need arose, who tried to boost spirits, who visited and smuggled the odd banned libation to the three Americans confined to the Foreign Ministry, who fought for the release of all the hostages, and — in Taylor’s case — collected intelligence for Washington on possible rescue operations. Canadians shared the emotional ups and downs of the Americans, their boredom, their anxiety, the constant simmering fear of a leak through the Iranian staff at their houses or discovery if someone was spotted through a window. Though long gone from the Canadian foreign service, Taylor retains the delightfully droll understatement of the diplomat. “What would have happened if one way or another it would have gone awry? . . . I may have had to stay around awhile” in Iran. Had his intelligence-gathering for Washington been discovered, “that would have been a difficult consequence, I think.” It’s not for nothing the movie is set mostly in Washington and Hollywood and only fleetingly in Tehran, Taylor notes. Neither Mendez nor any other Americans under the tormented administration of President Jimmy Carter had much of a clue what was going on in Iran. When Taylor heard a few years ago that Mendez had sold movie rights to his book (which, to be fair, is much more generous than the movie about Canada’s role), “I said, ‘Well, that’s going to be interesting.’ “But how do they know what’s going on, because Tony Mendez was only there for a day and a half? The six diplomats were in (Canadian safekeeping) for three months, and they had no idea what was going on outside.” Some of Taylor’s friends tried to convey to the film-maker that there was “another side to this other than Tony Mendez’s book, since he was in Washington and Hollywood, he had no idea what was going on in Tehran.” Eventually, Taylor’s wife, Pat, did receive a call from Page Leong, the actress who plays her. “She had a long talk with Pat and Pat went over what happened,” Taylor laughs. “And then Page says, ‘Well, you know this is a thriller?’ What you’re saying isn’t necessarily going to be in the movie.” How right she was. When the movie was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the former ambassador wasn’t invited, even though he was in Toronto at the time. Friends who saw the opening were outraged on Taylor’s behalf, however, at how much history had been sacrificed to thrill. And after the Star’s Martin Knelman reported on this, Taylor was deluged with international attention. Soon, Affleck phoned, Taylor recounts, and said, “ ‘You’ve got issues?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got issues.’ ” So Affleck invited Taylor and his wife to Los Angeles, screened the movie, and offered — “although it’s going to cost money” — to cut the postscript and let Taylor “write what you want.” The new postscript says: “The involvement of the CIA complemented efforts of the Canadian Embassy to free the six held in Tehran. To this day the story stands as an enduring model of international co-operation between governments.” Even that hardly does Canada justice. Although the short-lived federal government of Joe Clark was fully supportive and deeply involved, in Argo’s version Canada was not much more a factor than Iceland. Another Canadian hero who gets short shrift is John Sheardown, the first Canadian official the Americans approached for shelter. “Why didn’t you call me before?” he said. “What took you so long?” Sheardown, now in his late 80s and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and his wife, Zena, took in four of the Americans — at considerable risk to Zena who wasn’t a Canadian citizen and had no diplomatic immunity. “To make the movie work, I guess, they assumed that everybody was with Pat and me,” Taylor said. “And John and Zena did yeoman work.” For Mendez’s part, he didn’t even learn of the six hostages until weeks after their escape. The CIA agent had his idea for the Hollywood angle in January. Then he arranged a back story to portray them as Canadian film-makers, created some disguises and documents. “But for every moment in Washington,” Taylor recalls, “there was an equal moment in Ottawa. “All the documentation to authenticate the diplomats as Canadians, the business cards, credit cards, the passports, the academic credentials, everything came out of Canada.” Not only that, Canada had already devised “exit strategies” — which didn’t use a Hollywood angle Mendez had dreamed up — that Taylor believes “we could have pulled off.” “We thought the (Mendez) plan was OK,” he said. “But we didn’t think we really needed something that intricate.” The key was that the Americans were travelling as Canadians. Whether they were purported to be petroleum engineers, nutritionists, agronomists — instead of film-makers — probably didn’t much matter, he said. In Tehran, moreover, Mendez “was totally in our hands,” Taylor said. His involvement over his weekend in Tehran was “not much . . . just some visa stamps. Ottawa had provided everything else.” In fact, the CIA almost scuppered the plan by making passport notations that used the wrong Iranian calendar and would have essentially had the Americans leaving the country before they arrived. Canadian official Roger Lucy, who spoke Farsi, spotted the error. Otherwise, Taylor said, “that would have been game over.” On the departure date, Taylor arranged embassy cars to pick everyone up — Mendez from his hotel, the diplomats from the Canadian residences — in pre-dawn Tehran. He ensured the flight got off before leaving Iran himself forever with the last of the Canadian embassy staff. As for Argo’s car chase and Mendez/Affleck’s various on-screen heroics, “it makes a great movie,” said Taylor, who was played in an earlier movie on the Khomeini revolution by Gordon Pinsent and is this time portrayed by Victor Garber. If Argo has a useful message, he said, it is on the importance and need for diplomacy and the fact that “what happened 32 years ago could happen tomorrow.” For Taylor, his life changed utterly after his exploits in Tehran. He left the foreign service, spent four years as Canada’s consul-general in New York, and has since enjoyed a successful career in the private sector. “It became a different life entirely,” he said. But not so much that the past isn’t these days ringing his phone off the hook. Recently, he was called by the BBC World Service for Tehran to comment on the closure of the Canadian embassy in Iran and on Argo. They told him “they still remember you in Iran,” he said. And they wanted to know whether Canada had closed its embassy in Tehran to “coincide with the showing of the movie in Toronto. “I said, ‘Well, I doubt it.’ ” Whatever goes on in Hollywood, life goes on, and rather sweetly, for Ken Taylor, who will travel to Washington this week for a screening of Argo at the Canadian Embassy. The other morning, the phone rang once more in his 26th-floor apartment overlooking the East River. It was the BBC World Service calling back to inform him they owed him £40 for the interview. He told them it was very thoughtful, but not to bother.