Rating of
2.5/4
"American Made" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/18/19
A civilian airline pilot is recruited by the C.I.A. to run covert errands in central America and finds himself embroiled in the affairs of revolutionaries and drug cartels.
Tom Cruise smirks his way through this tall-but-true-tale of Barry Seal who was involved in everything from intelligence gathering for the American government, to the “war on drugs”, drug running for Pablo Escobar and running guns for the Contras in Nicaragua. It’s a bizarre story that exposes not only the hypocrisy of American foreign policy, but also its sheer incompetence, as the C.I.A. uses and abuses anyone who they think will be useful and then throw them to the wolves when they outlive that usefulness. Barry Seal himself comes across as a likeable but amoral rogue in much the same way as Johnny Depp’s character in the very similar Blow. And like in Blow and Wolf Of Wall Street, its jokey tone and failure to hold the central characters to account for their actions means the story’s general lack of a moral message leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth.
An interesting story that makes for an entertaining film, but it’s one of those projects that feels like it could’ve been more than it is.
