Desert One

Desert One provides a thoughtful revisit to one of the greatest intelligence failures in recent American history. How is it possible that this tragic mission was green-lighted at the highest levels of our government when according to the film, its realistic chances for success seemed so painfully and obviously lacking? As the documentary clearly points out, a key element in the rescue plan required a nighttime multi-helicopter journey over hundreds of miles of unknown (and likely dangerous) desert terrain and weather conditions. Apparently all of this was to be done with only limited advance preparation and thus a minimal awareness of the probable circumstances we could reasonably expect to encounter in the mission.

It is said that success has many parents but failure is always an orphan. Desert One presents an obvious example of just how true this statement is. As the documentary recalls one unforeseen and surprising event after another---the cumulative effects of which ultimately led to an aborting of the mission--we again are struck by its apparent lack of appropriate readiness and the absence of reliable intelligence that denied us the opportunity to get a more sober assessment of Operation Eagle Claw's chances for a positive outcome.

Desert One unfolds in a sober and riveting way as it tells us the story of this mission, the truly brave men who participated in it and where and how it went wrong. Of course unanswered questions remain. Who were the principal cabinet advisors who counseled President Carter to go ahead with Operation Eagle Claw given all its risks? Why were we so ill prepared to deal with the real conditions encountered on the ground? Could the mission have been aborted sooner based upon the facts experienced at the time?

We come away from seeing Desert One much better informed about this sad episode. That is the hallmark of a good documentary. We should be grateful to all who participated in its creation who enabled us to better understand the facts depicted in Desert One. And when another such dangerous mission does turn out well--like the later taking out of Osama Bin Laden-we should better appreciate the tremendous difficulties heroic Americans needed to overcome to achieve that success.

"Desert One" (2020 release; 107 min.) is a documentary that examines what exactly happened with the doomed 1980 secret mission to rescue the 52 US hostages being held in Tehran. As the movie opens, we are "April 24, 1980" as choppers are getting ready to depart from the USS Nimitz. We then go back in time and we get an "Iran 101" crash course on what has happening in the 1960s and 70s, as it all leads up to the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the subsequent storming of the US Embassy. At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from double Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple. My regard for her is such that I will watch any documentary she makes, no questions asked. Heck, if she were to make a documentary about the erstwhile Yellow Pages, I'd go see that! But here she examines what transpired exactly 40 year ago this summer, when President Carter send in a Special Ops Delta Force, and I mean the best of the best. As to the rescue mission, with 20/20 hindsight it was clear that chances for a good outcome were low. That is acknowledged by many who participated in the mission, speaking here on camera. It also is astonishing how ill equipped the helicopters were for this mission (2 of the 8--25%!! think about that--malfunctioned). As to the mission participants themselves, they are true heroes in every which way. Sadly 8 of them lost their lives. When the mission returns to base (outside of Iran), and British solders piece together what has been happening, they sent over some cases of beer with the note "To you all from us having the guts to try". Lastly, as to the documentary itself, it unearths tons of footage and audio tapes that I had never seen or heard before. Today's (fragile looking) Carter, Mondale and many other key people from that era, including of course several who were held hostage, and several who participated in the rescue mission, are all given plenty of screen time. I found this to be a very insightful documentary on many levels.

"Desert One" opened this past weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, while requiring strict adherence to all COVID-19 rules. Not that it mattered, as the Tuesday early evening screening where I saw this at turned out to be a private screening. I was literally the only person in the theater. If you love a good documentary or have an interest in finding out more about the ill-fated Iran rescue mission, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Desert One covers the 1980 hostage situation between Iran and United States. Desert one does a good job at showing both perspectives of the situation from start to finish, as in before the 52 Americans were taken hostage to the release of the hostages. The film presents the main elements of the situation through, old television news footage of both Iran and American perspectives, many people who were involved in the situation for example; Jimmy Carter (president of the United States at the time), multiple hostages, men who was part of the rescue mission, Iranian civilians indirectly involved in the situation and Iranian guards of the hostages. This film chose to animate what happened at the rescue mission and they did a great job, the story telling over the animation gave the recreation of the event such a vivid feeling, it really made it feel like they filmed the actual rescue mission. Interviews of the people involved in the situation were well done and helped to make the story that much better. Good film.

This is a documentary about the 1980 Iran hostage crisis. I expected this to be more a detailed examination of the preparations and then the execution of the hostage rescue. I know the rescue was short-circuited by the accident. So I expected a lot of preparations to fill this up. Instead, there is next to no preparations. I don't mean the documentary doesn't have much on the preparations. I mean the operation doesn't seem to have much preparations. There is one snippet of a participant complaining about President Carter delaying the operation. My feeling is that he should be happy about the delay so that they could do as many run-throughs as possible. I expected a replica of the embassy. I expected a full replica of the neighborhood. I expected some planning for the refueling area. I am confused about the lack of practice before the big game. This documentary is a regurgitation of everything around the event. A lot of this is well known. I wasn't around back then so some of the minutia is new to me. I didn't know a mother went to visit one of the hostages. The recreation of the rescue is done with comic style drawings. It's probably the most compelling part of the movie and worthwhile to be remade into an action thriller. Of course, Hollywood likes a happy ending which isn't this. This is probably never getting the full theatrical treatment.

My dad was on this mission for the USAF, I'll let him summarize this review: "Lost some good friends. Too many players, egos, uncoordinated. Led to formation of Special Ops Command"