I was watching the 2017 Tom Cruise movie "American Made" at a Little Rock theater when I suddenly felt the urge to text my wife.
As the characters in the movie visited a Contra camp in southern Honduras or northern Nicaragua, I wrote to her: "I bet I'm the only one in this theater who actually visited a Contra camp in the 1980s."
She quickly replied: "That's probably a safe bet."
The movie is based on the life of Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot who flew missions for the CIA and became a drug smuggler for the Medellin cartel in the 1980s. Seal became a Drug Enforcement Agency informant to avoid a prison sentence.
In the movie, Seal relocates to Mena, and the town becomes a hub for cocaine trafficking.
