American Made

Whenever communism is confronted or thwarted the American left always cry foul that, whatever the policy, it’s “dirty pool.” Such was the case in the 1980s during what came to be tagged as Iran-Contra where military supplies where funneled into Nicaragua to arm the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force. This movie claims to be “ALL true based on real events,” except that the concept of selling weapons to stall communist imperialism was sheer brilliance. On the one hand the petulant progressive smirks that “everybody’s gonna use dope anyhow” but then feigns indignation when it’s suggested that drugs finance the Monroe Doctrine! In this ideological push-and-pull during the 1980s, Central America was up for grabs, so TWA commercial pilot Barry Seal, played by Tom Cruise, is recruited by the CIA to run reconnaissance missions in Nicaragua where he encounters the Medellin drug cartel and proceeds to pit both covert operations against the other. Incorporating news clips of the time, the film focuses on Seal’s attraction to the high-stakes cat-and-mouse and the effect it has on his family, his sanity and his future.

[R]