Warner Brothers Pictures
A scene from "Argo" with, from left, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Kerry Bishé, Ben Affleck, Tate Donovan, Christopher Denham and Clea DuVall.
WASHINGTON — Thirty-three years after the event, Hollywood has turned its attention to an episode that traumatized the United States for months: the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran. But it has focused on what one participant called “a footnote”: the escape of 6 embassy personnel, not the 52 Americans who spent 14 months in captivity.
The off-center focus of the movie “Argo,” which opened on Friday, turns out to be fine with many of the former hostages, because their day in the limelight (or more properly, their 444 days) is on the edge of memory now, or, for younger Americans, too long ago to be part of any memory at all. And they are mostly happy to be remembered, even as the backdrop for someone else’s story.
The sense of time passing hit David M. Roeder, a retired Air Force colonel, a few years ago when he and some fellow former hostages were testifying about their experience before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. A representative from Iowa, he recalled, “said there is no one he respects more than us, and he still remembers it because he was still in grade school when it happened.”
The former hostages consider it a trifle odd that “Argo” is based on the tale of six embassy staff members who eluded Iranians, posing as students, who took over the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979. The six spent weeks in hiding, sheltered by Canadian diplomats, until they slipped out of the country, 3 months into the 14-month crisis.
The six were greeted at the White House by President Jimmy Carter, and their return was a rare bright spot during a grim time when the nation worried that the hostages would be tried as spies and executed. The larger episode is still a sore point in American history, perhaps not something many people would pay money to see recreated.
“Our little story is a footnote,” said Robert Anders, the informal leader of the six, whom the movie calls “houseguests.” (They were not held hostage.) “But it had more adventure,” he added. Perhaps not quite as much adventure as in the Hollywood version, but adventure nonetheless, he and others said.
Mr. Anders, played in the movie by Tate Donovan, reflected on this as he sat on a bench near the candy stand at a special screening at a Regal Cinemas multiplex here last week. Out on the red carpet Ben Affleck, the director and star, and John Goodman and others conducted interviews.
“It made me feel a little guilty,” said Mr. Anders, now 87. “The real hostages were the real heroes.”
But the houseguests needn’t feel guilty, several of the hostages said. Alan B. Golacinski, the embassy’s security officer, was invited to the Los Angeles premiere and the Washington screening but decided not to go because, he said, it was their moment in the spotlight.
“Let’s let these people have their time,” he said. And a movie about the 444 days, he said, would not supply Hollywood-type excitement. “It would be the National Geographic channel,” he said.
Barry Rosen, another former hostage, had a different perspective. He said the crisis, from November 1979 to January 1981, was no more than “a point of departure” for the movie, which he called a version of “Mission: Impossible.” Mr. Rosen, who has begun work on a documentary himself, added, “If people use this to understand the hostage crisis, then they know nothing about the hostage crisis.”
In any case, Mr. Affleck said the escape made a good story, and so did the C.I.A.’s ruse, that the six were Canadians scouting locations for a movie. As retold in “Argo,” the C.I.A. set up a fake movie company as part of the cover story given to Iranian officials. And a movie about a movie, or even a fake movie, is an easy sell, Mr. Affleck said.
“Maybe it speaks to the narcissism of Hollywood,” he said.
Rodney V. Sickmann, who was a Marine sergeant guard at the embassy, found out by happenstance that “Argo” was in production and was invited to visit the Los Angeles set. Mr. Sickmann said he had some trepidation about how his story as a hostage would be told, but was pleased that Ryan Ahern, who plays him in the opening scenes, as the embassy is stormed, is better-looking than he is. On the set Mr. Sickmann received a standing ovation from the cast, Mr. Affleck said, and Mr. Sickmann’s 21-year-old son, Spencer, an aspiring actor, was given a bit part. (He plays a messenger inside the C.I.A. office.)
“They got him all dressed up in 1979 clothes,” Mr. Sickmann said. “It was kind of eerie to be brought back into that timeline.”
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