AMERICAN MADE (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

american made (2017) movie

Genre             |  Crime Thriller

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   115 minutes

Released         |   24 August 2017

cast

Tom Cruise ... Barry Seal
Domhnall Gleeson ... Monty 'Schafer'
Sarah Wright ... Lucy Seal
Jesse Plemons ... Sheriff Downing
Caleb Landry Jones ... JB
Lola Kirke ... Judy Downing
Jayma Mays ... Dana Sibota
​Alejandro Edda ... Jorge Ochoa
Benito Martinez ... James Rangel

director

Doug Liman

writer

​Gary Spinelli ... (written by)

cinematographer

César Charlone

music

​Christophe Beck

film editor

Andrew Mondshein

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box office result

Worldwide             $134,866,593

Australia                 $​​​​​​​​​​​5,260,624

North America       $​​​51,342,000

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the best dialogue

Barry Seal: I'm not working for TWA no more.
Lucy Seal: No shit, Barry! Are you going to prison?
Barry Seal: No, Ma'am.

Barry Seal: I'm the gringo who always delivers.

Barry Seal: [Barry records his last confession on video tape before his assassination] You know I guess you could say I helped build an army, defend a country and create the biggest drug cartel this world has ever seen. DEA, CIA, White House. I mean, it's been a hell of an adventure. Yes sometimes a little more than I bargained for. But goddamn, you try telling me that this ain't the greatest country in the world?

AMERICAN MADE (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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AMERICAN MADE (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Barry Seal, a TWA pilot, is recruited by the CIA to provide reconnaissance on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America and soon finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States. The operation spawns the birth of the Medellin cartel and almost brings down the Reagan White House.

AMERICAN MADE (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 18 August 2017
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It would seem that international movie star Tom Cruise and Director Doug Liman are a pretty good team. In 2014, the pairing delivered the excellent but under-appreciated EDGE OF TOMORROW. They’re back in 2017 with AMERICAN MADE and what a breath of fresh air it is to see Tom Cruise embracing a character and showing audiences why he’s endured as one of the few genuine movie stars of the last thirty years. Sure, 2017 wasn’t looking like a vintage year for him, as THE MUMMY has been a serious disappointment for both fans of the Classic Universal Monsters and Cruise.

It’s safe to say though, the scuff mark left by the box office under performance of THE MUMMY has been well and truly polished out with AMERICAN MADE. Tom Cruise delivers his best performance in years, in one of the best films of 2017, directed by a filmmaker who has shown that he has the ability to show A-list stars in new and exciting ways. Think Matt Damon in THE BOURNE IDENTITY and Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie in MR & MRS SMITH and you’ll get a sense of what Doug Liman can do. Not only is AMERICAN MADE a great film; it’s genuinely exciting to watch as the adventures of Cruise’s Barry Seal unfold over the next 115 minutes.

In real life, Barry Seal was a pilot who had helped Colombian drug lords from the Medellin Cartel ship their refined crops from Central America into the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After he was arrested for his crimes, Seal cooperated with US government to help bring the drug lords to justice.

In AMERICAN MADE, Seal is a likeable rogue who seems to find his way in and out of trouble and, at points, his character feels like its been fashioned on Forrest Gump, as major figures in that period of American politics and the Central American drug trade, pass in and out of Barry’s story...

At one point, he’s hired by the CIA to take low-altitude pictures of what the drug lords are up to.

Next, he’s approached by the Medellin Cartel to fly the drugs into the US, ostensibly with the backing of the CIA.

Seal even starts working directly for the White House, as he becomes embroiled in a plan to brings rebel fighters into the America to be trained by CIA operatives.

Seal’s run comes to an end when his work for DEA is leaked to the media and his identity is splashed across the American news, at the same time revealing him to be a traitor to the all-powerful, all-connected Medellin Cartel. How much of this wild story is fact and how much is fiction is a matter of conjecture. Some of the facts are on the record, but much of Gary Spinelli’s screenplay relies upon the fictional Seal’s recollection of events as he video tapes himself recounting the events of 1978 through to 1985.

What makes AMERICAN MADE so enjoyable is its authenticity.

For much of the movie, it’s feels like a documentary, as the story has great energy and the performances feel organic and spontaneous. It’s not just Cruise who hits a homerun either. The ever-reliable Domhnall Gleeson delivers an excellent performance as ambitious, amoral CIA Agent Monty Schafer, while Sarah Wright plays Lucy Seal, Barry’s ever-suffering wife, who loves her husband about the same level as she distrusts him.

The film’s tone should also resonate strongly with viewers who enjoy the likes of Martin Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS and CASINO, as Liman and the film editing trio of Dylan Tichenor, Andrew Monshein and Saar Klein work to deliver a movie that is well-paced, highlights the central performances but gives the audience the exposition they need to put the pieces together. Given the names, places and events that are shown, it’s no small feat for AMERICAN MADE to make sense, but it does and the viewer is never left wondering what’s going on. Not only is this film AMERICAN MADE, it’s extremely “well made” and marks a return to form for Cruise and an excellent option for those who make the journey into their local cinema complex from next weekend.

AMERICAN MADE MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

​​American Made (2017) - IMDb
​American Made (film) - Wikipedia
​American Made (2017) - Rotten Tomatoes

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