American Made: Cruise all the way & up close

Cast: Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhnall Gleeson, Jayma Mays, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke

Rated: 5/10

It’s a Tom Cruise close-up shot through and throughout the film, shot on a shaky camera to give it a true docu feel but ends up in a lot of drama fleshed over a true life story of Barry Seal. Not that all events are truthful in the film but the incorrigible rogue pilot, formerly from the TWA, is at the centre of all the scams that make America over the ages and this one leads to the murky, drug-arms-marijuana-international relations mess which ends in the infamous Iran-Contra affair. The director, with fun films like Mrs & Mr Smith and The Bourne Identity, does well to be totally focussed on Cruise all through this venture which he has called “a fun lie around a true story”.

Bored to death as a TWA pilot who simulates turbulence merely for fun, and smuggles cigars on the side for some extra money for his loving wife and kids, he is picked up by a CIA recruiter to fly over communist zones around America for aerial shots of rebel installations. Seal loves the thrill and the money and, of course, diversifies into dropping the biggest drug cartels consignment over Miami as the CIA looks the other way and uses him for arms drops to friendly rebels in Nicaragua and even gifts him an airport of his own which is to be used to train rebels to fight the regime in Nicaragua.

Yes, it’s murky out there and Cruise is loving it. You may too if you have knowledge of some amount of American history.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 1 October, 2017