Review of American Made (2017) by Cheyenne W — 19 Sep 2017

SPOILER REVIEW:

I came across this film because I really wanted to go to the movies. The last time I went to the theater was July of 2016, how sad is that for a movie reviewer? Anyway, I looked at what was out and this looked like the most interesting film, so here is American Made.

The film tells the real life story of Barry Seal, a used to be pilot turned spy for the U.S.A. during the late 70s and throughout the 1980s. He leaves his job out of pure boredom and also because the government threatens him that he'll go to jail if he won't work them. In addition, they'll torture his family. No way like the American Way, right? Anyway he does his job taking photos of Sandinista camps in Latin America because the U.S. wants to input their own governments. Brown people ruling themselves! How absurd? So later they ask Barry to start arming the rebels, the Contras, to take down the Sandinistas. Barry does it, while also working for the Medellin cartel for some extra cash. This continues for a few years until the U.S. government wants to arm and help the contras even more. And to justify this, they have to make it seem as though Latin Americans - the Sandinistas - are evil and involved in drugs. Barry does this and takes photos of them smuggling drugs, but these photos also include Barry and implicate him in the drug trade. Barry then goes on trial but is free to go with community service, to the dismay of the state attorney. Barry does his community service, records tapes of his memoirs of how much of a hard on he has for the U.S. and then dies via an assassin while the government erases any memory of him and decides to arm the contras with help from the middle east - specifically Iran. This leads us to the Iran-Contra affair and to the present day, where Barry is seen as an American hero, rather than a drug smuggling imperialist, but also a victim of the U.S. government and blind patriotism.

The movie really lives up to its name. From the American Made criminal, Barry Seal, to the American Made countries of central America, to the American Made war on drugs, and drug corruption. U.S. imperialism in this film, is still seen as cool despite their attempt at lamp-shading. They're doing the whole, "we know it's wrong what we did and Ronald Reagan was actually insane, and you know it's true too, so we're not the bad guys, we're just pointing it out and profiting from it." It's the whole 4th wall thing that, "you know we're joking so it's okay." Especially at the end with Domhnall Gleeson's character (the worker for the CIA who recruited Seal in the first place) saying the last line so poignantly. The last line being, "we'll arm the contras with help from Iran," and then he gets promoted. And of course, Barry is seen as an American Hero, mainly because he's portrayed by Tom Cruise, a cult of seemingly lovable personality. In addition, Barry loves the U.S.A. and thinks it's funny that he helped the three biggest drug dealers in Nicaragua bring their product to the U.S. to get more people addicted to drugs, mainly poor people of color. Conveniently, we don't get to see that in the film.

The POC in the film are mainly the people from Latin America that are basically seen as animals - at least the contras are. They're seen as harmless and, "oh they don't really want to fight the Sandinistas for the U.S.", but they do. We never see any POC in the U.S. besides the African American FBI detective who gets max 5 lines in the whole 2 hour film. I guess they semi get away with it because it's "based on a true story." But seriously, not even the background characters can be of color?

Women are of course, either objectified or seen as a pain in men's asses in the movie. When we first meet Lucy, Seal's wife, she's seen wearing barely any clothes and is only there to have sex with him. The only scenes she's in are either them having sex or backing up Seal by being his cheerleader. However, there is one poignant scene she's in which she's about to leave him and attacks him physically out of anger and frustration. But when the money starts flowing she's back with him. She barely asks any questions about the money. It makes women appear to be trophies and cheerleaders for their husbands. But also makes them look like "money grabbing materialistic fake whores." Her ending is interesting though because she ends up working a blue collar job at a fast food place, so I guess it shows that she still has a work ethic and can help herself. But of course, she still has some of the jewelry on her because she's a "money grabbing materialistic fake whore," that's also sexually desirable. Like this film's predecessors - Wolf of Street and Catch Me If You Can - cons are good. But to be a good con you need a blonde trophy by your side.

There is one woman who can be seen as strong and that's Dana Sibota who's the attorney general for the State of Arkansas. That's a pretty big role for a woman in the 1980s and for the film, or it would be. Instead, Sibota is seen as another obstacle in Seal's path to freedom. She eventually loses her case against him because of a phone call from Bill Clinton, the then governor of Arkansas, and because of a white male judge who rules that Seal should only serve community service. She whines and stamps her foot, crosses her arms, and pouts, but doesn't do or say anything very lawyer-ish and she's seen as comedic more than anything else. I tried looking up Dana Sibota to see if she was a real person, but haven't found evidence for or against this claim. Please let me know if you find anything.

As for toxic masculinity in the film, there's plenty to go around. It's clear a man's worth is only in his money, not necessarily his heart or mind. Tom sees his sister's brother get killed and barely bats an eye. I don't think he cries in the entire film. He's just seen as this high upbeat guy all the time, when no one is high and up beat all the time. Guns, drinking, naked women, are also things that a man needs to be a man. In addition, there are plenty of "boy toys" such as fast planes, fancy cars, and trucks that are there to prove how rich and powerful Barry is. Without all of this materialism, the illusion that Barry is someone to be admired, would crumble.

Barry, our hero, dies at the end. He's seen as a martyr, a lone wolf, totally bad ass, but in reality, he's the victim of being coerced by the CIA, and then an enabler of drug and weapon smuggling. I guess it's hard to see Barry as anything but a hero because he's a victim of circumstance, and he can't really say no to the government because they seemingly don't allow him to. They threaten him with jail time if he doesn't continue doing their bidding. Before he gets shot, we see him help out the community by doing his community service, but in the end, he dies anyway because of the drug mafia he was involved in. I think it's also interesting that we never see Barry die. We don't see the blood spatter or any gruesome details. He goes out in a flash of white light. Again, because we're supposed to see him as a martyr of American patriotism.

I think the film did want us to hate the U.S. government (embodied in Gleeson's character), but not to hate Barry. He loved his country and he was just doing whatever he could to keep his family safe. The film is supposed to be self deprecating to U.S. nationalism, but in a funny kind of shoulder shrugging way. And the movie does a horribly funny job at points once you get passed the massive consumerism and imperialist bits. Oh, and all those people who died of drug addiction due to Barry and the cartel. I like the overall vintage style and the text they chose to do to show time passing and what happened to everyone at the end. The film does have a very distinct look that I think will make it memorable over time, but not as memorable as Wolf of Wall Street or Catch Me If You Can. Overall, I would see it just so you could give your take on it, there's a lot of food for thought that's worth delving into. The American national consciousness is an abyss. I give American Made 7/10.