After 31 years, Tom Cruise is back in the cockpit, playing another larger-than-life maverick, albeit a drug-smuggling, gun-flying opportunist, and audiences should be thrilled.
American Made — the latest collaboration between Cruise and director Doug Liman (the pair made Edge of Tomorrow in 2014) — is the (mostly) true tale of commercial pilot Barry Seal who was recruited in the late 1970s by the CIA to assist with covertly photographing rebel forces in exotic regions where U.S. forces couldn’t venture for threat of an international incident.
But Seal didn’t stop there.
He eventually found himself working for the founders of the Medellín drug cartel (Jorge Luis Ochoa, Carlos Lehder and Pablo Escobar), using military resources to transport thousands of kilos of cocaine from South America to the swamps of Louisiana, delivering bribes to Manuel Noriega in Panama and ultimately in cahoots with U.S. General Oliver North just before the Iran-Contra scandal rocked then-President Ronald Reagan’s second term, and acting as an informant for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
For anyone who grew up in the 1980’s, American Made is a fascinating history lesson, a peek behind the curtain of the stories we saw reported on nightly news broadcasts.
It’s also an intoxicating tale of luck, greed and excess.
In short, the kind of story that never ends happy.
At the center of it all is Seal, a real-life Forrest Gump, who likely was not nearly as charismatic as Cruise, but to tell his story successfully, Liman needed an actor of Cruise’s caliber — and make no mistake, this film succeeds entirely because of his portrayal.
American Made is vintage Cruise. It’s Jerry Maguire-quality Cruise. It’s the best non-action, non-science fiction film the actor has made in years. You would have to go back to 2008 and Tropic Thunder to find Cruise this electric and alive. It makes you wonder, where was this guy when they were filming The Mummy?
Liman also gets big props for his deft handling of the voluminous raft of material that details Seal’s transformation from disillusioned TWA pilot to high-flying raconteur, smuggler and international law breaker.
Liman frames his film, from the opening credits, like a lost relic from the 80’s, making the most of period nostalgia, technology and fashion.
A lot of films about or containing passages set in that decade — Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, Casino — have those moments when the action becomes a blur, whether it’s a drug-induced bender or an over-the-top shopping spree. Liman’s American Made basically exists entirely in that realm. It’s dizzying, full-tilt filmmaking at its best.
That’s not to say it’s perfect.
The lack of exposition and supporting character development, at times, is off-putting.
Domhnall Gleeson’s CIA spook "Schafer" seems to sometimes just appear to push the plot forward with little to no questions or resistance from Cruise’s Seal. Other characters, particularly Seal’s wife, Lucy (Sarah Wright), and then-Mena, AR Sheriff Downing (Jesse Plemons), are barely fleshed out. Of the trio of actors portraying the Medellín cartel, only Alejandro Edda as Jorge Ochoa makes a lasting impression.
But, in all honesty, the entire movie could just be Cruise making deals, barely escaping capture and flying below the radar for two hours. His energy is contagious, and his performance is awards-season worthy.
Probably the best compliment to be paid is that after watching American Made, you will want to go home and Google the real Barry Seal. I did. I wanted to know more, and to know how much of the film was spot-on and how much was embellished.
American Made is a really good film about a not so great guy who just happened to have some of the best luck possible when it came to keeping his keister out of hot water. Even though Seal’s good fortune eventually ran out after he double-crossed the cartel, at least some of it lingered, like a ghost, long enough for his crazy life to be made into a movie and for the world’s biggest movie star to play the leading role.
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 6, 2017.