Review – American Made

I wish I could give American Made 12 stars instead of only 5. I mean that. I know many critics dump on this movie because they are tired of Tom Cruise’s canary eating grin, but American Made is a movie each and every person needs to watch, especially if you are under the age of 50.

Why do I say you need to watch it if you are under 50? Because you didn’t live through it. History class might have mentioned the Iran Contra Affair, but I doubt any will mention the cocaine for guns Contra thing which went on in front of it. This movie is about that. It’s based on a guy (Barry Seal) who gave his life and videotaped a lot of stuff about it.

It’s the scandal which lead to the bigger scandal and made Bill Clinton’s rape of Juanita Broaddrick go away. I often wondered how someone could rape a woman who went public with the claim and still get elected to the Presidency. If you pay close attention, this movie explains that. Bill Clinton was a critical part of the cocaine for guns operation. He’s the Arkansas governor who calls to get Tom Cruise’s character out of jail after every agency under the sun shows up to arrest him.

Most people should probably watch this movie 2-3 times. If you fancy yourself a writer, you need to own a copy. If you stop being entertained and just watch the events of the story, it’s a textbook lesson in basic spy craft.

1. Identify potential target and acquire full background information on said target.
2. Recruit target for a Patriotic “gateway” project which seems to involve nothing unethical or immoral.
3. Give now active recruit enough rope to hang themselves.
4. Alert authorities or management when recruit is in compromising position.
5. Tell the recruit they are screwed unless they do this other thing for you and give them a very narrow window.
6. Once recruit has done enough to go to prison for a long time push them to ever bigger things.

Didn’t you ever wonder how a little bitty governor from Arkansas managed to leap onto the world stage as a candidate for President? I did. Didn’t you ever wonder, given all of the serve 10 years or more in prison things the Clintons have done since then, how they stayed out of prison? I did. If you pay attention, this movie explains that. Given how many Hollywood types backed the head of the Clinton organized crime family during her presidential campaigns, I’m really shocked this movie got made with a big name actor.

The only criticism I have of American Made is the timeline wasn’t quite specific enough. You see, the rape occurred while Bill Clinton was running for governor, but you would have to have external references to line that up with when the CIA set up Barry Seal in Arkansas and started training Contra rebels there. Did the CIA start grooming Bill Clinton before he ran for governor? That is the one question I wish this movie could have answered. It would explain both why and how the rape got tamped down.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.