If I had seen Bob Hoskins play Manuel Antonio Noriega earlier, I would have paid a lot more attention to the American invasion of Panama. Also to the Medellin drug cartel of Colombia and to Central American politics in general.

Apparently General Noriega, who is now serving a 30-year sentence (recently reduced from 40) in a federal prison, was not -- as one journalist recently suggested -- "just another banana republic dictator." He was and is a character stranger than fictional, at least as depicted in "Noriega: God's Favorite," which has its premiere on Showtime on Sunday night.

The film is based on Lawrence Wright's book "God's Favorite," which he classifies as a novel, although it is based largely on interviews and published journalistic accounts. The producers of the film stand by everything in the script but the inner thoughts of the people involved, which had to be inferred.

Mr. Hoskins's Tony Noriega is a vegetarian and a Catholic turned Buddhist who dabbles in voodoo. He is a rabid opponent of cigarette smoking and a coldblooded murderer whose sexual tastes draw him to his loyal middle-aged wife, his loyal young mistress, shapely prostitutes, equally shapely flight attendants and the (male) pilot of his official plane. Tony is a chronic acne sufferer who flies to Switzerland for treatment and finds time while he's there to visit his money and to oust the Panamanian president by telephone.

General Noriega's relationship with the United States, which was a notoriously friendly one for a long time, is represented by his references to George Bush as an old friend and by Richard Masur's character, an American political type named Mark. Just Mark.

"We know that you're one of the good guys: an anti-Communist Democrat," Mr. Masur's character tells the general, but "well, the American public sees you as a little pizza-faced fascist."

"Lord knows how they got that impression," he adds.

David Marshall Grant does a nice turn as an American drug dealer who wants to do business with the general. General Noriega has something to say. "The problem is not in Colombia," he tells Mr. Grant. "The problem is not in Panama. It is in your soul. There is something wrong in the soul of the gringo, and it needs cocaine, heroin, marijuana, LSD, crack."

Mr. Grant answers, deadpan, that he's only a businessman, not a philosopher, and presents a large briefcase full of money. Noriega's face breaks into a beaming smile. "Panama welcomes you," he says.

Tony Noriega is a man who finds himself the victim of a coup at one point, asks for a few moments alone to pray before he is taken away, and manages to turn the situation around with a single surreptitious telephone call (not to God). No wonder he tells a priest, in confession, "I found I did have supernatural powers."

The United States sends Jimmy Carter to monitor the Panamanian elections, but the vote doesn't go in the direction General Noriega wants. So he simply sends out soldiers to shoot up the places where ballots are being counted and announces that his candidate has won.

Everything went the general's way until the United States invasion of Panama in 1989. He went on trial in 1991 in Miami and was convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. Leave it to the savvy director Roger Spottiswoode -- whose credits range from the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" to HBO's underrated AIDS epic "And the Band Played On" -- to find both the complicated human drama and the humor in this story. Lots of humor.