In 2014, director Doug Liman and star Tom Cruise brought us what has become the best science fiction action film in Cruise in “Edge of Tomorrow”. Three years later, the filmmaker and the pair of actor have replenished themselves with an entirely different project which, although does not necessarily remember one of the best Cruise films, is easily one of the most fun of the actor.
“American Made” saw the cruise research driver with Barry Seal, who after working for Trans World Airlines (TWA) was recruited by the CIA in the late 1970s to pilot recognition missions on Central America. Soon, Seal finds himself working for the Medellin cartel, who asks the pilot to pass medication in the United States during his return flights, which makes the former sales pilot very rich very quickly. Meanwhile, he begins to run firearms towards Nicaraguens contras, but during the DEA, the DEA paid attention, and Sceal finds himself continued by several agencies, finally arrested by the FBI, the DEA, the ATF and the police of the state of the Arkansas after the CIA abandoned it. In order to avoid prison terms, the pilot concludes an agreement to become an informant and secretly obtains evidence connecting the Medellin cartel to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. However, when the incriminating photos he captures are released, he is prosecuted by the prosecutor general of the State and the cartel takes revenge. Things end in a tragic but inevitable way when Seal is killed by the cartel assassins after his conviction to 1,000 hours of community service.
If it looks like a crazy story, it might surprise you to learn that it is true. In other words, it is based on the true story of Adler Berriman Seal, with the writer Gary Spinelli taking very great liberties to tell the life of the pilot. That said, Seal’s real story is just as if it were no more exciting than the film.
Barry’s real seal
Doug Liman spoke to / film of “American Made”, noting that the time when Barry Seal operated was unprecedented in many ways. “It’s an extraordinary period of American history,” said the director, “and an extraordinary moment just in terms of … It was a time when the pilots could still be cowboys. This era ended. The kind of freedom that the pilots had in the 80s, has just ended.” “American Made” was a way of paying tribute to such a unique period in American history, but it was not entirely exact, Liman qualifying himself the film as “a funny lie based on a true story”. On the one hand, the real seal had been a “cowboy” throughout the decade preceding the 1980s, which is only one of the many aspects of the real history which has been modified for the film.
Despite the title card “based on events”, the writer Gary Spinelli gave himself a lot of creative freedom during the development of the script – although a scene cut off from “American Made” presented Bill Clinton to obtain a Dance of LAP, whose plausibility is surely not in question. Adler Berriman Seal was indeed a Two pilot. He started working for the company as a flight engineer in the 1960s before becoming one of the youngest pilots in business history. In 1975, he struggled to pass small quantities of marijuana but obtained his cocaine diploma in 1978, which was more profitable. At that time, however, he had lost his job with TWA for his involvement in a plot to get smuggling explosives from the United States, and stole from his landing track in his native Louisiana.
In the film, we see a seal developing links with the Medellin cartel after having stolen the recognition of the CIA, but it was in fact his colleague Pilot William Roger Reaves who first connected Seal with the cartel. Seal then recruited aid in the form of his ex-brother William Bottoms, who started flying drugs inside and outside the United States in 1981, Seal and his operation began to transport cocaine for the Medellin cartel, winning up to $ 500,000 per flight. As in the film, Seal would make packets of drugs in remotely in remote parts of Louisiana, after which her associates would recover the plans and transport them to Florida where the cartel connections were waiting. At the height of his operation, Seal directed a dozen planes to pass medication in the United States.
Barry Seal was murdered for his informant
In “American Made”, Barry Seal by Tom Cruise moves to the small town of Mena, Arkansas, which is somewhat based in fact. In 1980, the real seal moved parts of his smuggling operation to Rich Mountain Aviation at Mena Intermountain Airport after his activities in Louisiana drew the attention of federal investigators and the state of Louisiana. From 1981 to 1985, Seal would have used the airport led as a hub for his drug smuggling business, although there are contradictory reports on what this airport was used, some saying that no drugs really went through the airport. However, a joint investigation by the FBI, the police of the state of the Arkansas and the IRS apparently confirmed that Seal had in fact used MENA airport for a “smuggling activity” between 1980 and 1984.
In March 1983, Seal was charged by the DEA to several charges, including the conspiracy to distribute methaqualone and possession with the intention of distributing quaaaludes. Seal then concluded an agreement with the government in 1984 and started working as a informant for the DEA. The agency wanted to exhibit the Nicaraguan Sandinista diet as a large supplier of cocaine in Colombia. In the film, we see Seal recruited by the CIA agent of Domhnall Gleeson, Monty Schafer, in the late 1970s, to pilot recognition missions for the CIA. In reality, SEAL would have stolen from the airport’s recognized planes that after 1984, and could even have helped transport weapons to arm the contras to Nicaragua.
In his role as DEA informant, Seal continued to travel his smuggling roads, but did it on a plane equipped with surveillance equipment. During his trips, the pilot was able to capture photographs of Nicaraguan soldiers, members of the Sandinian government and even Cuban officials responsible for his plane his bags of cocaine. It is even said that the seal took a photo of Pablo Escobar.
Unfortunately for Seal, the press obtained a care of history and exposed the whole operation. Naturally, the Medellin cartel has not adapted to its drug smuggler as an American informator (“American Made” is really worth seeing if you are a fan of “Sicario”). In February 1986, Seal was killed outside a red Baton Salvation Army center when he was shot down six times by a man brandishing a machine gun. Three Colombians were finally found guilty of the murder.
