“I see the film as a patriotic film”: Tom Cruise’s ‘Anti-Top Gun’ Movie Director Considers it American That Showed the Dark Side of the CIA

When it comes to renowned director Doug Liman, no one can question his bold choices and visionary take on filmmaking. Even when he ventured into the dark side of American patriotism with the Tom Cruise-led American Made (2017), Liman surprisingly managed to justify his opinion behind the narrative that many dubbed as “anti-Top Gun”. 

Despite highlighting the questionable ethics of U.S. foreign policy during the 1980s and how the CIA dealt with things, Doug Liman called his movie extremely patriotic and quite American in its essence. Further, challenging the conventional notions of American heroism, Liman admitted that this movie was deeply personal on many levels. 

Doug Liman justified the patriotism behind Tom Cruise’s American Made 

Back in 2017, when Tom Cruise led the true story of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who became a drug smuggler and government informant, in Doug Liman’s American Made, the movie immediately garnered attention for depicting the corruption of the Reagan administration in a cynical way. But if you ask Liman about it, the director will defend the ideology behind his film, as he did during his interview with Entertainment.ie. 

When the interviewer told Doug Liman how the title of the film seemed ironic due to the underlying commentary that poked fun at American ideology, the filmmaker clapped back at the comment, defending his movie. Thereafter, since Cruise’s film dealt with the real-life depiction of the political situation back in the 1980s, as the interviewer asked Liman his idea of American politics today, the director shared his diplomatic take. 

I see the film as a patriotic movie. I’m celebrating America — that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some missteps. You know, a story like this can only happen in America and a character like Barry Seal could only exist in America. 

It’s that kind of rebel thinking that led to the creation of Google and Facebook. That kind of American Maverick who’s not conforming to the rules is sometimes criminal, sometimes not, but they’re always American. 

Then, in terms of what it means to be an American today? I think our presidents come and go; who we are as a nation endures. I don’t think any one president can destroy it.

So it seems that Doug Liman considered his film, American Made a celebration of the nation’s rebellious spirit, despite its critique of political missteps. Thereafter, highlighting Barry Seal’s audacity to run drugs for the US government and become a central figure in the Iran Contra Scandal, Liman connected his maverick mentality to the nation’s innovative legacy. 

Doug Liman was driven by the idea of exposing how the CIA actually functions 

Following Doug Liman’s comments about his perspective regarding Tom Cruise‘s American Made, the interviewer urged the filmmaker to share the ideas that came to him, while making the movie. Considering how Liman had a completely different take on his film, compared to how people saw it as a “cynical answer to Top Gun”, the interviewer wondered about the filmmaker’s driving force for the 2017 movie. 

I don’t really make movies with an intention other than asking myself, do I love the character and do I love the story? Sometimes I find a deeper meaning along the way, and what it’s all about for me gets discovered along the way, but my initial attraction was this rebel outlaw pilot who’s recruited by the CIA and runs circles around his handlers.

I was really interested because I’ve done a number of things with the CIA, in exploring an aspect that I’d never looked at before that’s actually the most interesting part of really how the CIA functions. 

Recalling his previous works surrounding the CIA in The Bourne Identity (2002) and Fair Game (2010) where he focused on the organization’s resourcefulness and strategies, Doug Liman admitted to being deeply interested in something new, when he came across Barry Seal’s story. That’s when he got interested in shifting from the conventional take on the CIA and exploring the dark side of the organization.  

You have people like Domhnall Gleeson’s character, these young Republicans who are truly patriotic, whose job it is to go out and find criminals willing to implement their foreign policy.

That’s basically the job of these CIA case officers and that relationship between Domhnall Gleeson and Tom Cruise’s Barry Seal is the most interesting aspect of telling a CIA story.

Therefore, Doug Liman explored the foul methods of the CIA by delving into the unconventional alliances they form, in his 2017 movie American Made, starring Tom Cruise. Rather than delivering a straightforward action film, Liman challenged people’s perceptions by presenting a raw, complex portrayal of how the CIA operates behind the scenes.

American Made is currently available to watch on Prime Video. 

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