American Made

Back in 1972, a commercial airline pilot called Barry Seal lost his job since he was arrested for smuggling. In time he created a huge smuggling operation, flying cocaine for the Medellín Cartel. He smuggled drugs, weapons and anything he could fly around in a small fast plane. He was also apparently working for the CIA, although that has been denied by the agency. It seems to be one of those cases where everyone knows he freelanced for the CIA, but since they deny it, there is no official evidence for it.

The reason I'm bringing up Barry Seal is that I watched American Made (2017).

American Made is directed by Doug Liman who said of the movie “it is a fun lie based on a true story”. This is absolutely correct, both the lie and the fun part. Also I guess the true story part...

Tom Cruise stars as Barry Seal and does an amazing job. The movie starts when he is still a pilot for TWA, then he gets an offer from the Agency and seeing as he is incredibly bored being an airline captain he takes it and never looks back. Soon enough he is also freelancing for the cartel and starts to make stupid amounts of cash. Something in the vein of $60 million in and around 1980. At this time he is also collecting intelligence from Noriega and before you know it, he is involved with the whole Contra-Sandinista catastrophe. Like all such rags to riches stories, things inevitably goes down the drain. It is worth noting that both the manner of his death and its location is how it happened in real life.

The cinematography is amazing in this film. The shots of the breakneck piloting, of which there are plenty, are so nice and the general way in which it is shot is solid and highly entertaining to watch.

Cruise gives American Made the same intense commitment he gives all his movies, he even flies the planes as he can actually fly. I'm sure the crazier stunts were done by stunt pilots, if for no other reason than to appease the insurance companies. Then again, Cruise is known for doing a lot of his own stunts, so what do I know...

The other actors are all good as is everything else in here. I can actually not point out a single thing to complain about. As long as you remember the “entertaining lie” part, you're going to have a great time. Sure, Seal didn't have a brother in law called JB who was a complete screw-up and he was not arrested by four different agencies at the same time, but it doesn't matter. The movie is actually really funny and charming, which is no mean feat considering the subject matter touches on things like the Medellín Cartel and the war between the Contras and the Sandinistas, and those things aren't funny!

If you watch or have watched American Made and want more, the Netflix show Narcos deal with the same stuff at the same time. In fact the crew for American Made kept bumping in to the Narcos crew as they both filmed a lot in Colombia. Just remember that Narcos is definitely not trying to be funny.

So do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. I had a blast from beginning to end and have nothing to complain about. If you haven't seen it and what I said above doesn't seem like a complete snooze then go watch it. You can even amuse yourself by spotting all the American Presidents (present and future) that are either shown or mentioned in the film. There are more than you might think.

 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!