"A harrowing examination of the inter-American drug cartel.”
“Nothing will make sense to your American ears but in the
end, you will understand,” warns Benicio Del Toro in Sicario, an intense socio-political thriller from French-Canadian
filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. With measured action and suspense, Villeneuve tells
a tangled web of malice and subtle brutality in the inter-American drug trade
and the legal forces that desperately tries to suppress it.
The film opens with FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt)
leading her SWAT team on what appears to be a kidnapping case in a cavernous
suburban Arizona house belonging to the Diaz family, an influential cartel
operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. To her surprise, they
discover dozens of decaying corpses stocked in plastic bags behind the walls of
the building. An ensuing explosion endangers her squad, forcing Kate and her
partner agent, Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya), to be part of a top-secret
American task force commissioned to bring down the Diaz empire.
The US team is lead by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) who claims
to be a Defense Department contractor, and his partner, Alejandro Gillick (Del
Toro), a native Colombian who was once a prosecutor in Mexico. In this
high-risk mission where she is mostly kept in the dark about what’s going on, Kate
finds herself doing multiple trips back and forth between U.S. and Mexico to
catch a much bigger fish (Julio Cesar Cedillo) than the Diazes. More
disturbingly, she finds herself involved in something far beyond the reaches of
her principles and ideals.
Sicario is a
suspenseful, harrowing and satisfying study of modern civic war where rules are
as hazy as the demarcation that separates what is good from evil and right from wrong. The opening
sequence is tense and gripping and amazingly, the film is able to sustain the
air of anxiety and foreboding all throughout. Expertly, action and suspense are
built and combined to create one riveting scene to another. Machismo and
armaments are ever present but violence, though savage and upsetting, is
handled subtly and sophisticatedly. One notable sequence is when the mission’s
convoy passes from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez. As they navigate through this
dubious neighborhood, where mutilated human carcasses hang upside-down from an
overpass, a crossfire ensues between the caravan and some gunned local thugs
amidst a heavy traffic. Frames are masterfully staged and shot here. Exploits
are viewed through car’s rear windows and side mirrors or through blocking, and
the presence of countless interchangeable civilians further heightens the
drama.
The film does not examine the war only but also its
players and the larger system that dictates how they behave. The term “sicario”
is an old Latin word for assassin, a befitting title for a movie where everyone
can be the killer or the hunted. Almost everything in the film is observed
through Kate, an unwilling player dragged into a war in which she is almost
always uninformed about the details. She has much to contribute to this
nationalistic mission but territorial conflicts, legal issues, personal
vendettas and practical realities hinder her. So in the end, with her good
intentions trumped and wasted, she is merely an observer, another victim of an
unending war.
The male characters are more professional and firm in their
actions and beliefs. While Matt simply goes with the flow, Alejandro is more
predatory and unforgiving. Through Alejandro’s history, it is learned how the
cartel problem and corruption in the society have become deeply implanted in
Colombia, Mexico and the rest of the American Southwest. The mission has become
personal for Alejandro as he has lost loved ones to this merciless war. He is a
battered man but his rough and tough exterior conceals his inner longings and
turmoil.
The movie has stirring political and social undertones. What
is the value of human life? When will the war against human and drug
trafficking end? Or will it ever end? How does it affect the civilizations it
touches? Can honesty, good intentions and pure virtues win the war? Or will
violence also be the answer to it? These are some uncomfortable inquiries into
the politics of violence and revenge in the film, but like the dust-covered
suburbs and cluttered neighborhood in Latin America, there are no easy and
clear answers to them.
The cast are superb with their Oscar-worthy performances.
Blunt is just mesmerizing as her penetrating blue eyes project the
intelligence, resilience and compassion of a woman who gets trapped in
a quicksand of legal restrictions and deceptions. Del Toro is a strong magnet as
he steals every frame he is in, silently projecting an uncunning aura of menace
and authority. While Brolin is engaging with his light and laid-back
performance, Victor Garber and Jon Benthal deliver the opacity and resolve of
their individual roles.
In essence, Sicario
is a haunting study of an unbeatable war and the poison it brings to the
emotional and psychological composition of the people it touches. It is
evocative, well-shot and magnificently acted out.
Production
companies: Black Label Media, Thunder Road Pictures
Cast: Emily Blunt, Benicio
Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, Jon Benthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Jeffrey
Donovan, Raoul Trujillo, Julio Cesar Cedrillo, Maximiliano Hernandez, Bernardo
Saracino
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenwriter: Taylor
Sheridan
Producers: Basil Iwanyk,
Edward L. McDonnell, Molly Smith, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill
Executive producers: John
H. Starke, Erica Lee, Ellen H. Schwartz
Director of photography:
Roger Deakins
Production designer: Patrice
Vermette
Costume designer: Renee
April
Editor: Joe Walker
Music: Johann Johannson
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