“Money doesn’t grow on trees,” mother used to say, but she was wrong. In the world of kingpins and Pablo Escobar, Honest Abe’s face sprouted from the soil after a heavy rainfall and lined the walls of dingy houses in the middle of nowhere. In this white, powdery world of cocaine, money was devoid of value and power was the currency of the day. At least, this is what I picture from the kingdom of the infamous Pablo Escobar. Can you imagine having so much money that it loses meaning? Paper is paper and you can burn it when you’re feeling chilly, at least that’s what Escobar did according to his son. He burnt over two million dollars just to keep his family warm while they were begin hunted down. I mean, Escobar didn’t even blink when he lost 1.2 billion dollars of cash each year just because.
When you’re swimming in it, you know you’re bound to drown in it very soon. How easy is it to lose control?
Many have followed the white trail of Escobar and encountered the same, bloody fate. Among the many ghosts trailing behind the Ochoa brothers and Pablo is the devil-may-care pilot, Barry Seal. Like many spies, smugglers, and drug lords, Seal’s life was a rollercoaster of action that would perfectly suit the silver screen.
Universal
As a miserable TWA pilot bored by the monotony of everyday life, Barry began to smuggle drugs from the late seventies up to the early eighties, and in the interim, developed close ties with the Medellin Cartel. He flew over 100 flights, smuggling thousands of pounds of cocaine, which is the equivalent to 3 billion dollars. To say he lined his pockets with this sweet dough is an understatement; he became one of the richest men in America during the eighties.
Universal
So, how did this AK-47-gun-toting, smuggling informant never make it behind bars? Well, while he was carrying out all kinds of shenanigans in Central America and toasting margaritas with Escobar, he was working with the “good guys”: the CIA and the DEA. Barry Seal was a man of many faces and his fingers were in all the pies. He literally gave the middle finger to everyone and got away with it, well, almost. He was killed, like many others before him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6CQUWeA2KQ
If I had to pick a historical character to plaster on the big screen, Barry would rank high on the list. The screenplay is basically writing itself with his spotty career. It’s no wonder Doug Liman, the mastermind behind The Bourne saga latched onto it with Tom Cruise as his shiny lead. The result? American Made.
Once you spot Cruise’s mullet you know American Made isn’t your run-of-the-mill biopic, but rather a tongue-in-cheek life spin of the crazy decisions Barry makes. In between the Tequila shots and the crazy plane stunts, you forget this film’s backdrop is the cold war and its murky, downright filthy politics. The VHS tape diary entries that pop up to explain Seal’s story wrench you back to a crude reality where the US’s interventionist policies in Central and South America are put on evidence. What’s worse is that it’s glossed over as something the “good guys” must do to keep “order” in the world, kind of like pruning the wild hedge in your backyard, in this case, a whole chunk of a continent. Let me assure you, there’s no finger pointing or moment of introspection of what this really means in today’s context. While playful, it doesn’t stab where it hurts: Reagan’s America and its interventionist policies, and given the current political climate, you badly want to see a few scrapes and cuts here and there.
Universal
It’s surprising really that Liman didn’t go for the whole dark biopic, given that his father, Arthur L. Liman, was a chief counsel for the Senate during the Iran-Contra affair. Maybe he only dared to show the lengths to which politicians and cubicle-working-ants hankering for a promotion are willing to go to, in order to achieve their ends and the absurdity of it all. What’s the purpose of all this? Money of course, but this cash ends up being buried in the front yard where kids play with the dog after school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hdyc2Ssbz4
American Made makes an effort to be a “fun lie based on a true story” –I’m quoting Mr. Liman here– and skirts away from all the dirty and ugly sides that are entrenched in this story and its protagonist. This, for me, is the greatest crime of all, a lost opportunity to dig up the skeletons in the closet and expose them for all the world to see. I will go out on a limb and say that by not ruffling any feathers, it goes against what Barry Seal stood for. He was a fearless pilot who gave the bird not only to the biggest institutions in the US but the most dangerous cartel in the world and paid the ultimate price. The only price American Made will pay is to be a forgettable summer film. The only comfort I can take is Tom Cruise’s megawatt smile and his awesome stunts. Bravo, Mr. Cruise!
American Made hit US cinemas September 29