When I saw that Affleck and Clooney were involved I knew the movie would have an agenda. Sure enough, I realized it was all about rehabilitating Carter's reputation which was destroyed when Reagan got the hostages released.
As far as the quality, it was an OK movie but certainly not academy award material. Affleck's acting was bland. The academy award hoopla IMO is to get more people to rent it so that history can be revised.
My understanding was that they were released on Reagan’s first day in office because the Muslims wanted to stick it to Carter for harboring the Shah.