American Made is like a criminal, sensational Forrest Gump starring Tom Cruise in a historically dubious biopic about a pilot who is the focal point of the Iran Contra affair as he transports guns and drugs for the US government and the Medellin cartel with pit stops in Panama to remind us of Manuel Noriega. (The real life Barry Seal denied working for the US government and did not regularly meet Pablo Escobar or the Ochoa brothers.) Doug Liman, the director, explained that it is “a fun lie based on a true story,” and his dad, Arthur L. Liman, was chief counsel for the US Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition so he should know.
I did not know any of this background information while I was watching the movie, but anyone can intuit that American Made has less interest in accuracy than fun and adrenalin if Cruise is the star. Cruise is an entertaining actor, not a rigorous one, which has served him and audiences well for decades of guaranteed vicarious thrills. 2017 was a big year for Cruise with the summer release of The Mummy, which I saw in theaters, and American Made, which was released in the fall. I prefer not to give money to a man who owns a Hawaiian island so I waited to see this movie when it became available on DVD.
In American Made and The Mummy, Cruise plays the guy who objectively displays bad behavior, but somehow is able to retain his likeability and be seen as an aspirational, adventurous, amusing good guy. In a culture that values wealth and equates the pioneering spirit with excitement, the real world limits the ability to achieve both and provide for your family so American Made depicts one realm to achieve all three: the illicit intersection of crime and government. You can be a patriot and the slick ultimate white man who can move through any and all socioeconomic circles, be above the law and rise in the ranks of the criminal underworld. Because it has the veneer of respectability with its roots in historical fact, eventually the house of cards collapses, but the viewer is manipulated into rooting against consequences because who doesn’t want the family man adventurer underdog to succeed in screwing over the Goliath of the US government and the most fearsome drug cartel.
American Made’s central theme is that no one wants to fight. Everyone just wants to have fun and make money. I just happened to watch Cocaine Cowboys the night before watching American Made. Both films theorize that dying communities need the drug trade to survive. In this movie, it was a random town in Arkansas that benefited from the pilot’s money laundering and employment opportunities.
American Made is more enjoyable if you get all the casual references to historical figures such as Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. The new Kevin Bacon may be Domnhall Gleeson (side note: his dad is Brendan) because he is in everything, usually plays a pivotal role, and I have no sense of what he is like in real life so he succeeds in disappearing into his character. I feel like a week does not go by without me seeing him in some movie. Jesse Plemons, best known from Friday Night Lights, must have a hard working agent because he is suddenly making brief appearances in big movies in the last year, including The Post, but he has not succeeded in making the transition from the small to the big screen probably because of his distinct appearance. I was so excited to see Glee’s Jayma Mays and Enterprise’s Connor Trineer in brief, but memorable appearances.
I initially liked Caleb Landry Jones when I saw him in Byzantium. I understand that his appearances in American Made and Get Out are supposed to be as unlikeable characters, but I feel like his accents are all over the place and don’t fit in with the surrounding story. His default posture seems to be bullying weasel. When he is memorable, it is as the most annoying character so maybe he is doing a great job, but his performances are repulsive to me in contrast to great, usually villainous character actor Michael Shannon who always does something different and unique to capture my attention.
American Made was an entertaining, fun depiction of a rapscallion cog in the machine of American ineffectual manipulation of international politics with the blood soaked consequences as almost forgotten afterthoughts in an eternal, voiceover narrative that suggests even death can be transcended with enough vainglorious daring and ill gotten gains.