BEFORE: Well, this wasn't part of the original plan, not at this point anyway. I was going to record this movie and save it to go with "Jack Reacher 2" or "The Mummy", for the Tom Cruise connection, but circumstances forced it to move up the list. This was supposed to be the slot for "Call Me By Your Name", which is on an Academy screener I borrowed, only that disc wouldn't play in my DVD player at home. The copyright / anti-piracy messages played fine, but not the movie itself. Then I checked for it on Netflix (not there) and on iTunes (only available for purchase at $14.99) so I decide to abandon it, put that film back on the someday/maybe list, and look for a replacement.
Thankfully, it didn't take long, and this film's available on HBO on Demand, and it gets me right back to where I need to be. You can probably see that I was going to go from Armie Hammer in "Birth of a Nation" to Hammer in "Call Me By Your Name", and then from Timothee Chalamet to, well, tomorrow's film. But this works to, I can just have Jayson Warner Smith carry over from "Birth of a Nation" to this one, and then link to the same film tomorrow via a different link.
And hey, this keeps me on the theme of dark moments in American history, PLUS the title really ties in with the July 4th holiday, which is another bonus. And I get to add another film with Caleb Landry Jones, who's already appeared in 4 films this year, so this makes five. Caleb Landry Jones just might be the Michael Stuhlbarg of 2018. (Stuhlbarg appeared in 7 films during the 2017 Movie Year...)
PLUS, the poster is another take on the American flag, just like the one from "Birth of a Nation":
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Kill the Messenger" (Movie #2,952)
THE PLOT: The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980's in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra affair.
AFTER: This does seem to cover some of the same territory as "Kill the Messenger", but it comes from the same director as "Fair Game" - makes sense, I guess, it's also about the CIA and leaks to the press and having one's cover blown. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Barry Seal was a pilot for TWA who was doing some small-time smuggling, bringing boxes of Cuban cigars into the U.S. twice a week, when he was (allegedly) contacted by a CIA agent to take photos of Communist insurgents in Central America as he flew overhead in a small plane. I understand, though that parts of this story involving the CIA might be hard to verify. This eventually led to courier missions to and from General Noriega in Panama, exchanging money for intel. Then before you know it, he was hooked up with Pablo Escobar and others in Colombia to bring cocaine to Miami. (OK, near Miami, if Louisiana counts as near Miami.)
I mean, sure, why not, if you're running missions down to Central and South America anyway, why not make the trip worthwhile? What are a few (hundred) kilos of coke between friends? Well, apparently they're the difference between being a CIA operative and being an international drug smuggler, as Barry eventually finds out. I guess he forgot that famous line from "Mission: Impossible" where the voice on little tape recorder says that "If you're caught, or captured, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."
But in true American Dream fashion, Barry kept turning his situation into a positive - eventually the Reagan administration wanted to really fight Communists in Nicaragua, so the CIA needed Barry again to fly down there with guns, even gave him his own airport in Arkansas and a few planes. And once again, it would be a shame to fly down there with a full plane and come back empty, so he devised a "golden triangle" by bringing the guns to the Columbian cartels, loading up with Colombian cocaine, and bringing that to Panama, and then back to the U.S.
Pretty soon Barry's biggest problem is where to launder and store all of his money, which is a pretty good problem to have, all things considered. Only he starts employing his brother-in-law at his hangar, and a few petty thefts threaten to expose the whole operation. Meanwhile the CIA (again, allegedly) sets up a Contra-training base near the airport in Arkansas, but finds that most of the men that get flown in disappear as soon as possible to pursue their own American dreams. And the best moment of the film is probably when the DEA, ATF, Arkansas State Police and the FBI all decide to move on Barry's operation on the same night, then have to figure out which organization outranks the others.
It's an over-the-top situation - did it really happen? Who knows? But it makes for a very energetic movie, at least. And once again, Barry skates prosecution by making a deal with the White House, to get evidence that the Sandanistas are working with the Colombian cartel. Yeah, Barry should know that, because he had connections to both of them. Oliver North's deal with the Contras figured in here somehow, but I'll be darned if I can understand exactly how. Maybe this was so confusing, it explains why he chose to deal with the Iranian government instead.
The question remains, how much money was enough, and why didn't Barry quit when he was so far ahead? I suppose there's no possible answer to that question - everyone keeps doing what they're doing if the money's good, right? But when you're set for life with all the cash you have on hand, why not just get out when you can? Eventually Barry had to live on the run, moving to a different motel each night, because he believed the cartel was out to get him. Was it all worth it?
Also starring Tom Cruise (last seen in stock footage in "The Lego Batman Movie"), Sarah Wright (last seen in "Celeste & Jesse Forever"), Domhnall Gleason (last seen in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"), Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez (last seen in "Outbreak"), Mauricio Mejia, Jayma Mays (last seen in "The Smurfs 2"), Jesse Plemons (last seen in "The Post"), Lola Kirke (last seen in "Gone Girl"), Frank Licari, Jed Rees, Caleb Landry Jones (last seen in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"), Connor Trinneer, Robert P. Farrior (last seen in "Shrink"), E. Roger Mitchell, William Mark McCullough, Robert Pralgo (last seen in "Kill the Messenger"), Mickey Sumner (last seen in "CBGB") and archive footage of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
RATING: 6 out of 10 buried suitcases
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