Tom Cruise is currently on our screens fighting THE MUMMY. Soon we will see him in a different role when he plays the real-life Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot who became a drug runner and was then recruited to provide intelligence to America’s Drug Enforcement Administration. The Barry Seal story is a fascinating one and it is unusual to see Cruise playing such a morally ambiguous, non-heroic character. We saw this trailer and it piqued our interest.
At one point, Seal was illegally transporting cocaine simultaneous to being a DEA operative. He stretched the definition of being under cover to breaking point. He also became involved in a CIA covert operation and smuggled drugs that were supposed to help fund Nicaragua’s Sadinistas and eventually this became part of the Iran-Contra Scandal.
The character of Seal is portrayed in Season 1 of television’s Narcos and in the recent feature film THE INFILTRATOR (2016). These and AMERICAN MADE are part of the current Pop Cultural interest in the 1980s War on Drugs and the Pablo Escobar years.
American Made is directed by Doug Liman who was responsible for the original BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) and worked with Cruise in EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014). The movie has its US premiere in September 2017. It looks like a definite change of pace for Liman and Cruise. Check out the trailer and see what you think.
