"Barry Seal, an American story" has just arrived in Italian cinemas before its release in the United States. Let's start right away by adding something to the title: a true, dramatic and not just American story. The story is as simple as the period in which it takes place is complex: we are between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s. The US president is Ronald Reagan and his mandate, from 81 to 89, marks an epoch in the economy and in international politics. The so-called "Reaganomics” develops in unbridled liberalism while, on the international scene, it maintains a solid line of direct and indirect interventionism in areas or countries where the USA has strategic interests.
Barry Seal lived through those years and the story told in the film is real: it begins as civilian pilot in the TWA and then move on to illicit flights, first in the pay of the CIA and then in that of the drug traffickers which, in turn, trafficked with various guerrilla formations operating in Central America. Transporting everything, drugs, weapons, guerrillas, he accumulates a fortune and, of this same fortune, he then becomes a victim. That's all, all, dramatically, very simple. The film tells us, sometimes even in a slightly cartoonish way, once again as perhaps only US directors know how to do, facts and misdeeds of the secret operations that, without our knowledge, take place in international relations.
The director, Doug Port, shows us from the lock the back room of these events where the shrewd spectator with a good memory has an easy time remembering the many black holes in the modern history of the United States and the reckless support operations for political subjects of dubious credibility. In this story, open support for the Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua easily leads back to similar experiences in other parts of the world. The film, in its own way, flows smoothly in telling the story of Seal and of those who, directly or indirectly, used it until it was useful. At one point, arrested by the various police, he is immediately released by a certain governor of Arkansas, a young Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
In Hollywood they are undoubtedly good at reopening uncomfortable chapters of American history and have no hesitation in slamming onto the big screen the names and faces of those, real or presumed, who were responsible for dramatic events and, often, still shrouded in the shadows of mysteries. We talked about "reaganomics" and a similarity comes to mind with "The Wolf of Wall Street" (Scorzese, 2013) where DiCaprio looks a lot like Tom Cruise of Barry Seal in the way, in the style, in the public representation of the craving for success, for easy enrichment typical of that neologism.
The film is certainly successful: there is no lack of rhythm, the script is credible and the images are suggestive. It would also be funny to add, were it not for the fact that it refers to a world, that of drug trafficking, which is too dramatic to deserve such an adjective. The director tries to lighten the emotional load of the story, sometimes he succeeds, but not enough to make us forget its real meaning.
