Weekend Buff
American Made (2017)
American Made (2017)
Somehow this Tom Cruise movie escaped my attention. A friend recommended it - I had never even heard of it. Thanks for the tip: American Made is our recommendation for this installment of Weekend Buff.
This movie is an interesting look at a major political and criminal event, the Iran-Contra Scandal. It is loosely based on the life and crimes of Barry Seal. Seal was a real-life smuggler and a confidential informant for the DEA. He was also allegedly a contractor for the CIA.
Director Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity) and writer Gary Spinelli took the wild shenanigans of Barry Seal and gave them the Hollywood treatment, fictionalizing and glamourizing an already incredible story.
Tom Cruise takes the lead role in this thriller/action/comedy and is a perfect fit. Cruise isn’t the greatest actor of our generation, but he knows his spots, and the Barry Seal role is right up his alley. Sarah Wright plays Seal’s wife, Lucy, and Domhnall Gleeson plays his conniving CIA handler, Schafer. The rest of the cast is an ensemble of cop, cartel, and criminal roles, but this is the Tom Cruise show. Cruise is loose and funny here, pulling off some stunts, and seemingly enjoying the one-off role.
Cruise’s Seal is a TWA pilot doing some small time smuggling on the side. He gets recruited/blackmailed by CIA Agent Schafer to run reconnaissance missions over Central America, and later acts as a courier between the CIA and Panama’s General Noriega. No sense flying an empty plane back home, so he falls in with the Medellin Cartel to bring in massive amounts of cocaine. This draws the attention of just about everyone with a badge. DEA, ATF, FBI and Arkansas State Police all come knocking at his door - with a battering ram - and a search warrant. A rude upsetting of Seal’s lucrative apple cart.
Meanwhile his work with the CIA has morphed into running guns for the Nicaraguan Contras – a bright idea from Schafer and Ollie North. Seal’s antics remind us of Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22 – running so many scams that he needs a fleet of aircraft to keep up.
Can Cruise’s seal keep all these balls in the air? His life has become a daily sprint to keep money hidden, outwit the cops, and stay alive.
American Made is a solid film. No deep messaging here. No great life lesson to be uncovered with hours of quiet contemplation. It is right-up-the-middle entertaining brain candy. And done very well – nonstop thrills, a few laughs, and some aeronautical stunts. Something we can all appreciate these days of overly serious drivel coming from Hollywood.
The movie runs a little short of two hours. I found it for $3.50 on Amazon Prime Video and is $4 elsewhere. Enjoy an old-fashioned bit of American piracy with a healthy mix of government conspiracy with American Made.
Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!
