Coup 53

Name: Coup 53
Genre: History, Documentary
Released: August 19, 2020
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 80
Cast: Allen Dulles, Ashraf Pahlavi, David Talbot, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ervand Abrahamian

2020

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

| Release Date (Streaming): August 19, 2020 | Not Rated

Starring: Allen Dulles, Ashraf Pahlavi, David Talbot, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ervand Abrahamian, Hedayat Matin Daftari, Julian Amery, Kermit Roosevelt, Malcolm Byrne, Mohammed Mossadegh, Ralph Fiennes, Shapour Bakhtiar, Stephen Kinzer, Taghi Amirani, Walter Murch, Winston Churchill

Summary: Ten years in the making, Coup 53 tells the story of the 1953 the Anglo-American coup d'état that overthrew Iran's government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah. The CIA/MI6 covert action was called Operation Ajax. It was all about Iran’s oil and who gets to control and benefit from it. BP was at the heart of thisTen years in the making, Coup 53 tells the story of the 1953 the Anglo-American coup d'état that overthrew Iran's government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah. The CIA/MI6 covert action was called Operation Ajax. It was all about Iran’s oil and who gets to control and benefit from it. BP was at the heart of this story. Shot in seven countries, featuring participants and first-hand witnesses, and unearthing never seen before archive material, Coup 53 is a politically explosive and cinematically innovative documentary that lifts the lid on secrets buried for over sixty-six years.… Expand

Director: Taghi Amirani

Genre(s): History, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 120 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Ann Hornaday

Aug 19, 2020

As enlightening as Coup 53 is as a secret history, it’s even more satisfying as an aesthetic exercise, treating viewers to one of cleverest workarounds in cinematic problem-solving in recent memory. It’s a nonfiction film that functions precisely as all documentaries should: as a piece of doggedly investigative, personally transparent reporting, and as simply great storytelling, full stop. Read full review

100

The Playlist Christian Gallichio

Sep 8, 2020

Coup 53 is a live-wire thriller that is one of the best documentaries of the year. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Aug 19, 2020

Is Coup 53 trustworthy in every respect? Perhaps not. Both as a detective story and as a deep dive into a world event whose consequences linger, it is bracing, absorbing filmmaking. Read full review

Empire Ian Freer

Aug 24, 2020

Part political drama, part history lesson, part gripping spy thriller, Coup 53 gives what has been relegated to a small footnote in Iran’s story the big, expansive, dramatic treatment it deserves. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Aug 19, 2020

Fiennes assumes the character and recites shocking revelations that Amirami’s obsessive research has disclosed. It sounds like a cheap trick, but the actor pulls it off flawlessly. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Aug 19, 2020

Coup 53 is worth seeing, but its general effect on this viewer was to seek out more books, rather than movies, on the subject. Which I suppose is something. Read full review

Steve Pond

Aug 21, 2020

As the movie turns more conventional, it struggles to retain the freshness it once had. Read full review

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mickgold

Aug 27, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There is a problem with Coup 53: The smoking gun does not exist. No interview with Darbyshire was filmed. The allegation that Granada suppressed the interview in their End of Empire film on Iran is untrue.

The Producer, Researcher and Executive Producer of End of Empire: Iran have made it clear that Darbyshire agreed to an anonymous, off-the-record interview. He refused to do a filmed interview.

The makers of Coup 53 have unearthed the research notes of the off-the-record Darbyshire interview. These research notes informed the documentary End of Empire: Iran and also Brian Lapping's accompanying book, End of Empire. Nothing was suppressed or censored.… Expand

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