Argo (what do I know?)

With its uninformative title, customary creditless opening, and fanciful storyboard history with a monotone commentary, coupled with my very vague recall of events in  from Iran in 1979-81, I sat down to watch Argo with remarkably little prior knowledge.
And so I was drawn deeper and deeper into a movie with superb, accelerating pace - (yes, it *did* get the Best Editing Oscar as well as the others), spare fluent and believable dialogue, and that generous confidence with performances and tone that one associates with an actor-director. Alan Alda and John Goodman added humour, through timing and pauses, warming characters that could have been abrasive and aggressive. The read through of a sub-Star Wars script was hilarious though the humour was tightened by cross cutting with a chilling Soviet style mock execution.
There were some 'Hollywood' concessions to limited attention spans - surely if the Revelutionary Guards wanted to stop a plane from taking off they could simply speak to the control tower beforehand? - but it worked incredibly well for someone in England who didn't have the slightest idea how true it was before the end credits.
Then we had pictures of the real people portrayed, looking mainly quite like the actors. And a rather quavering Jimmy Carter. And having declared the astonishing truth of whole pseudo movie plot, the titles brought back the facts that were half buried in my memory. The 444 days of the hostages' captivity, etc...
And this is unusual. I normally approach a historical film with prior knowledge that greatly affects the experience (for example knowing that the opening scenes of the dire Cromwell supposedly take place after the Irish uprising of 1641 but before the Scottish war of 1639!) And this is a historical film. The cars, hair, clothes and above all the *glasses* put the characters into a period long gone, one I can hardly believe I lived through!
But last night, watching Argo, I was like a non-techy person watching science fiction. Taking it all at face value. This was a good way to be. A rare pleasure.
Recommended .