American Made by Gary Spinelli

American Made by Gary Spinelli

Even if one is not a fan of Tom Cruise, one would probably enjoy this overlooked, entreating action drama.

Of course, this road has been taken before multiple times and examples of similar plots abound:

Blow is so close that, during the screening of American Made this cinephile was thinking if Depp’s character has not met Barry Seal aka Tom Cruise somewhere on the runaway in Columbia, or at an Escobar shindig.

What makes the viewing of the motion picture ever more rewarding is the knowledge that it is based on fact.

Indeed, there are inserts from the news on television, including the acclaimed Ronald Reagan, mentioning the cocaine traffic, the contras, the Sandinistas and so many other protagonists in this excellent feature.

Barry Seal is an airline pilot, working for the now defunct TWA, when he is approached by a man who talks about his breaking the law, with the Cuban cigars he was smuggling from Havana and a new proposal.

The government would like the civilian pilot to get involved in a game that they are playing in Central America, where the cartoons used to make the plot more accessible are absolutely splendid, from the Russian bear fighting the American eagle, to the hilarious misrepresentation of Nicaragua- they first point to Honduras and then say, wait, this is not where the Sandinistas sell their communist fare…

Barry has to think about the proposal and this is another excellent scene, where he is in the cockpit, going through the tedious motions of checking brakes, lights and so many more items on the crucial checklist, including…windows- shut, and the hero thinks this is not his calling and he just walks out of the plane…

Barry will deliver arms to the contras, fighting, or just pretending to, the communists, but this will be challenging, for those on the grounds are more interested in his boots, sunglasses and clothes than the weapons.

Later on, when the CIA brings hundreds of the contras to the US to train them, these are just keen to run from the camp and become illegal immigrants, waiting all for the Donald and his “beautiful, big wall” probably.

Barry Seal is then approached by some men from Columbia who offer to pay him $ 2,000 per every kilo of cocaine that he would deliver to the Miami airport, where their partners would be waiting.

First, what is a kilo (2.2 pounds) and then the protagonist accepts the offer, considering in the process that he has had expenses with his wife, another baby, medical and other expenses that the CIA did not cover.

However, the “runaway „is just a short dirt alley in the middle of the forest and the Columbian partners in crime want to fill the plane to the roof and on top of that to send a hatchet man to protect their merchandise.

Even if the excellent pilot refuses to both get cocaine to the roof and transport the bodyguard with him, the plane barely lifts off and hits a few trees on the way to Louisiana, where he throws the packages in a swamp.

At the peak of the business, the machine guns are not sent to Nicaragua, but transferred to the Columbian cartel, in exchange for drugs, which reached the biggest market, the United States, where Barry had more money that he knew what to do with.

At that stage, he kept trying to find new places, the barn, various cupboards, under the ponies, only to have other bags with cash, that he obviously forgot about, flowing on his head, even when he was digging in the yard, he did that only to find other stashes of bills already hidden in there…

Meanwhile, Ronald and Nancy Reagan were on television, talking about how bad the drugs were.

JB, Barry’s brother-in-law makes some mistakes that nearly bring the whole operation to a stop and the few planes that the drug trafficker now needed to transport a quantity bigger than a single airplane could take.

JB looks like he is always intoxicated by drugs or alcohol and finds one or a few of the suitcases with cash that are piled all around the property and takes one to the town, with bills overflowing, where he is seen and arrested by the sheriff.

Pablo Escobar and the Medellin interfere in the heinous, violent manner that characterized them and Barry is taken into custody by…multiple agencies, all competing in his operational headquarters, shouting: DEA, State Police, FBI and some other abbreviations…

However , when confronted with the self-assured state prosecutor, who swears the criminal, offensive will spend all his life in jail, a call comes through from the governor and, after all parties leave the room and the suspect offers all present a Caddie for their service, the prosecutor comes out to…release the defendant.

What is also exceptional at this movie is the finale, which is not the usual fare and has some provocative challenging questions included.

How much is artistic license and what is the known truth, given that the protagonist has recorded tapes with the details of the operation, chapters on Columbia, the CIA, the contras, but they are taken by one of the agencies at the end.