Entertaining with muddied morality

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2018)

Bored TWA pilot Barry Seal is prevailed upon by shadowy CIA operative "Shafer" to fly spy photography missions for them and, subsequently, to courier materials to and from Noriega in Panama. This turns quickly and easily into smuggling cocaine for the Medellin cartel. Much money results and, before he knows it, Seal is in the middle of a very big, lucrative and dangerous business.
Barry Seal was a real person, and the events shown in this film largely took place. I'm not sure if they would have taken place in quite the way they are shown here, though. Tom Cruise plays Seal as a likeable chap, an almost-loser who is a mix between savvy and naive, and blessed with an ability to regard morally reprehensible activity as somehow justifiable.
The film is played almost as a comedy and is quite amusing throughout, despite the questionable and occasionally violent activity which takes place.
I enjoyed it, but I found myself wondering about both the morality of portraying Seal as a likeable schmuck whose only crime was finding himself out of his depth, and also the presentation of what happened as a comedy. These were not merry japes.