(c)Universal Pictures
``American Made'' What is the life of a real pilot who played a role in America's dark history?
2017.10.25
About the actors who have played Barry Seal and their works
In any case, being such a strong "historical figure," Barry Seal has appeared in several films and TV dramas in the past.
The first actor to play Barry was Dennis Hopper. He played the lead role in the TV movie "The Price of Betrayal" (1991/director: Roger Young). Hopper was 55 years old at the time, which coincidentally makes him the same age as Tom Cruise is now (Barry Seal himself was 46 when he died).
However, the style of the film is quite different from "American Made." Scenes such as the low-flying spy plane dropping packaged drugs are spectacularly recreated, but Barry's character has a stronger eccentric madness to match Hopper's personality. Overall, the film has a heavy feel to it, as the protagonist is at the mercy of the bigger picture and looks ahead to his tragic end. At the end, a video of President Reagan's "explanatory" press conference is used.
Unfortunately, this work has not been released on DVD. In the past, it was easy to watch on VHS tape. In fact, the whole thing is on YouTube (search for the original title "DOUBLECROSSED"), but of course there are no subtitles, so I would love to see a Japanese version on DVD! I would like to request this.
Moving forward in time, Barry next appeared in season 1 (2015) of the popular Netflix drama series Narcos: The Presidential Debate . In episode 4, "The Palace of Justice in Flames," Dylan Bruno played Barry, a bearded, rugged The Mule who is arrested by the DEA at a brothel. In the film The Undercover (2016/directed by Brad Furman), which depicts the inside story of veteran DEA undercover agent Robert Mazer's desperate sting operation at the heart of the Medellin Cartel, Michael Pare appears in the mid-scene where Barry meets Mazer at the racetrack after gaining 35 pounds (about 15 kg). With a stocky build, this role was created to resemble Barry's real appearance.
Compared to the three previous films, which were basically realistic and serious, "American Made" is also a Tom Cruise "star movie." His royal glamour transforms a true story into something fictional and interesting - a dreamy feeling like a tall tale. Many people may associate it with other films of the same quality, such as " Catch Me If You Can ) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and " The Wolf of Wall Street " (2013/Director: Martin Scorsese).
Barry Seal's limited-time, extreme glory and downfall are one with the pathology of the greedy superpower that is America and the darkness of Latin America. The unique basic principle of this film is that it depicts his carefree criminality as an upbeat, wild drama without any moralistic judgment. The film is full of a sense of bubble-era excitement that stimulates the pleasure center in absurd ways, such as setting up an airfield in a deserted rural area and seeing some of the huge amount of money he makes spilling out of his house here and there. It is extremely dark and cynical, yet exhilarating. This ambiguity is the charm of the masterpiece that is "American Made."
Text: Naoto Mori
Film critic, writer. Born in Wakayama in 1971. He is the author of ``Cinema Garage: Children in the Ruins'' (Film Art Publishing), and edited ``Movies of the Zero Years+'' (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), among others. He regularly writes for magazines such as Weekly Bunshun, Asahi Shimbun, TV Bros., Men's Nonno, Kinema Junpo, Eiga Hiho, and Cinema Today.
"American Made"
Distributor: Toho Towa (c) Universal Pictures
*Information as of October 2017.