American Made (2017)

Review

115min

Genre:       Fact-based, Crime, Drama

Director:    Doug Liman

Cast:         Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright…and more

Writer:      Gary Spinelli

-Synopsis-

Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity) directs and Tom Cruise stars in a biographical drama based on the life of the infamous Barry Seal; an American pilot and CIA stooge turned Colombian drug cartel smuggler and federal informant, whose activities would contribute to national scandals in the US and help to topple regimes in central America during the 1980s.

Whether on the big or small screen, audiences can’t seem to get enough of South American drug traffickers and US government scandals, criminal revelry and the dark side of the ‘American Dream’. Now Liman and superstar Cruise oblige by reuniting to give us the story of an unlikely man who linked them all together, and whose name seems to come up during any discussion about the Medellín Cartel, Iran–Contra or the Reagan administration—or indeed whenever the names Ronald Reagan, Pablo Escobar, George H. W. Bush and Oliver North come together.

Cruise stars as Adler Berriman “Barry” Seal himself, a Louisiana native and talented commercial pilot with a penchant for crossing the line, who moves up in the world when the CIA and agent ‘Schafer’ (Domhnall Gleeson) come knocking looking for help with their nefarious Cold War exploits—only to take it up a lucrative notch when presented with the lure of international drug and arms smuggling for the most dangerous of clientele. But things quickly get out of hand when Seal puts his fingers in too many conflicting pies, leaving him in a struggle to keep his marriage to ‘Lucy’ (Sarah Wright) and his young family together—while in the crosshairs of the wrong people.

Much like other recent ‘only in America’ biographical flicks about shady individuals getting their piece of a perverted American dream, as seen in films like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘War Dogs’, ‘American Made’ takes a light and almost comedic approach to the questionable exploits of its central ‘hero’, as he goes about his outrageous continent-hopping business with reckless abandon—although Cruise doesn’t get to have quite as much fun as messrs DiCaprio & Hill.

Although he’s ably supported by a cast of relatively unknown talents—apart from the always solid Domhnall Gleeson that is—this is undoubtedly the Tom Cruise show, with the Hollywood superstar ditching his all-action persona for a little dramatic range in what is probably his most intriguing lead role in the last decade. Yet try as they might to make this more than just an edgier hero vehicle for its star, Liman & co. can’t escape the fact that this is all about the Cruise, where he must always take centre stage and come off well, either as hero or anti-hero . . . regardless of the less-than-flattering reality of Barry Seal himself.

Despite the inevitable historical inaccuracies associated with a Hollywood adaptation, which in this case includes anachronistic depictions and glaring omissions, ‘American Made’ is hardly the most serious offender when it comes to depicting recent history. Ultimately the film is more hampered by the fact that it crams too many elements into its two-hour runtime, but only scratches the surface of the remarkable true story, while trying to underpin it all with an unconvincing family drama.

The result is a slightly misleading snapshot of complex and intertwined stories; including the expansion of the Medellin Cartel’s operations into the US, the escalation of the so-called drug war, the Contra affair, and the simultaneously seditious and empirical ‘anti-communist’ activities of the CIA and the US government in Central and South America throughout the cold war.

But historical accuracy is not the only issue with the film. Not only is the story arc familiar and the way it handles the outrageous narrative clearly taking advantage of what seems to be a trend sweeping through Hollywood, but it’s just not stylish or wild enough to make the glorification stick—and isn’t outrageously funny enough to make it endearing or memorable. Despite his charisma, Cruise just isn’t right for the part, not only because he looks nothing like Seal himself but because the Hollywood baggage he brings takes away from the character, and demands that the audience fully empathises and fall in love with him . . . when we should be far more conflicted than that.

Yet despite its faults and a distinct lack of tension in a narrative which could have accommodated more, ‘American Made’ is still outrageous and entertaining enough to make it a captivating eye-opener, to those not familiar with the Barry Seal story anyway. One of Tom Cruise’s more intriguing and rounded efforts in a long while proves to be a solid introduction for the uninitiated to the 1980s drug trade, plus the nefarious activities of US authorities during the cold war, and yet another ‘only in America’ story that’s hard to believe but easy to accept.

The Bottom Line…

Although Tom Cruise’s star power often gets in the way of this overstuffed tale of 1980s criminal revelry and a perverted ‘American Dream’, the extraordinary nature of the story and Liman’s stylish execution produces enough moments to make this an outrageous eye-opener for some, and an entertaining historical recounting of an infamous figure for others—while once again proving that truth is often stranger (and more fascinating) than fiction.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Infiltrator (2016)

Crime drama set around Miami during the 1980s Reagan “War-on-Drugs” and based on a true story, starring Bryan Cranston as a U.S. government agent who goes undercover to break Colombian drug trafficking operations in Florida headed by the infamous Pablo Escobar and his fearsome cartel.

Directed by Brad Furman and starring Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo and Diane Kruger among others.

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