American Made

Dir: Doug Liman

2017

****

I really enjoyed 2017’s American Made, although it did frustrate somewhat. It’s based on the true story of American pilot Barry Seal who smuggled drugs into the country in the late 70s and early 80s. It star Tom Cruise in the lead role and features Domhnall Gleeson as a CIA agent and Sarah Wright as Seal’s wife Lucy. Seal is caught smuggling Cuban cigars while piloting for TWA and is secretly hired by the CIA to fly arms to South American rebels in order to help overthrow Communist governments. Seal is given his own plane, his own airport and a beautiful house with many acres of land. While in South America Seal is approached by the Cartel and soon finds himself running drugs for them for vast amounts of money. It is a film about the government being despicable and a man making money from arms and drugs and yet it is treated as something of a success story. Cruise’s Seal is incredibly likable, a bit naive, but not a big bad nasty criminal, more like a cheeky entrepreneur. Fine. We all love Henry Hill and wanted him to succeed in Goodfellas and George Jung (Blow) clearly just wanted to make the world a happier place – the money was just a bonus. It’s the American dream, capitalism in action, sure they are technically criminals but at least they’re getting off their backsides and doing something with their lives. It’s a classic tale of lovable rouge does well for himself. However, Seal wasn’t really like how he is depicted in this film in real life. Absolutely no surprise there. Director Doug Liman was upfront about it from the very beginning though and described the film as “a fun lie based on a true story” which I would say was a rather accurate description. The real Seal was a far less naive man and was openly unapologetic about his escapades. He always denied working for the CIA and he was very fat and un-Tom Cruise-like. The film is snappy and is directed with an excitable energy, giving it a consistent buzz of adrenaline but without losing momentum or becoming monotonous. Every single shot is thought-out and important, making it, in my opinion, one of the striking pieces of direction in 2017. The performances are good, the direction is good, the structure works wonderfully and there is little to criticize on. It is a well accomplished work of fictional fact/factual fiction. My only gripe, is that the American government was arming South American rebel groups – as the film states, and I worry that people won’t be as shocked about it as they should be. Its no revelation as this has been known for some time but a younger generation will probably be unaware and I worry that all they will see from the film is the success drug money can bring without really understanding what Seal’s actions lead to. He was a key player in making the world such a terrible place now. I need to remind myself of Liman’s words, it is “a fun lie based on a true story” but I just can’t help but think people should know the real story before they start having ‘fun’ with it. I think it might be making us less intelligent as a race. A thrilling piece of cinema that I have to say came as something of a pleasant surprise, very entertaining and cleverly directed. I just hope people read up on the true story and realise that it is a story of failure, rather than a story of success.