The HBO docuseries “The Invisible Pilot” tells the wild true story of Gary Betzner, a man who jumped off a bridge in 1977, leaving behind a web of secrets
A subsequent bout of painful gout led Gary to an unlikely cure: cocaine, a narcotic that he admits was used both to alleviate his ailment and for recreational purposes. When he was busted in a giant 1977 Miami DEA sting, though, Gary faced 20 years behind bars. Rather than do that stint, he decided to stage his death and go on the run.
If Morales sounds familiar to true-crime aficionados, that’s because he was prominently featured in Billy Corben’s, a similar tale of bold criminals living the high life while evading the law. Yet what begins as a crazy saga about an outlaw flipping the bird to authorities – both figuratively and, on more than one occasion, literally – soon takes a drastic turn once Gary starts flying cocaine for his Colombian bosses, and then military cargo for individuals directly linked to the CIA.
A lengthy prison sentence and cooperation with John Kerry’s subcommittee investigation into Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandal ensued, althoughcan’t make any of this later action hum with electricity; despite first-person accounts from Gary, interviews with various other pertinent individuals, and considerable archival footage, the docuseries loses its momentum the more it shifts its gaze from Gary’s outrageous conduct to the president’s headline-making mess.
Thus, by the time Gary gets around to railing against his unjust treatment at the hands of the CIA—who used him for their operation and then left him to rot in jail—any minor wellspring of sympathy has long since run dry. Whereas a shrewder docuseries might have had a more acute point of view about Gary, what emerges here is a mixture of astonishment and admiration that comes across as largely unjustified.
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