Sicario is a film centered around the Mexican drug trade and
America’s specious involvement therein; the film carries on the legacy of
Traffic and the Counselor, but also takes inspiration from other films as well.
A simple way to describe it is Black Hawk Down plus No Country for Old Men in
the setting of the Counselor. Sprinkle in a little Zero Dark Thirty minus the
ambiguous patriotism and you’re set. No Country also follows the drug trade but
is much more focused on individuals than ideals so it doesn’t really fit the same
exact mold.
You’ll recall the Counselor is a film written by Cormac
McCarthy directly for the screen, said film was very divisive but certainly had
fantastic dialogue and characters even if the plot was of the meandering
variety. Sicario has very similar pacing to the Counselor, which is to say it
doesn’t really care about constantly having something happen or having each
scene explicitly tie into the next. However Sicario does sort of have the “comfort
food” of shootouts and so on that make it a little easier to digest for most
people; the shock value in Sicario is limited to a few specific scenes whereas
the Counselor just has really weird shit happening the entire time. I wouldn’t
force you to pick between either movie (both are excellent) but it is rather
obvious why critics prefer the more recent film.
The Black Hawk Down connection is fairly simple, the first
major action (if you can call it that) sequence of the film involves a huge train
of SUVs with Texas Rangers, Delta Force, CIA, FBI, and Iraqi Combat Troops
alongside the Mexican Police straight up invading Ciudad Juarez, heading
extremely deep into your Mogadishu stand-in; at this point I was super invested
in the movie and they definitely could have gone a whole lot of places, but the
one they chose makes a bit more sense than various cinematic options that could
have happened. There’s very brief and sudden violence in this part that
reinforces the notion that Benicio Del Toro’s titular character is on even
footing with America’s Elite troops, which is likely necessary for the (much
later) best scene in the film to work.
Del Toro plays Alejandro, a Colombian equivalent of Anton
Chigurh (whose background remains a mystery) for all intents and purposes, however
instead of being an odd philosophical sort he’s basically just a mercenary
boogie man that everyone is terrified of. Perhaps his most impressive trait is
his method of interrogating people, whereas Chigurh might flip a coin and give
you a mysterious speech Alejandro just invades your personal space. He more or
less gets right up next to whomever and each one in turn is scared shitless by
his very presence. Benicio Del Toro is 6’2 in reality and maybe bulked up a
little for this film so I could see that working, especially if you had a
universally known reputation.
Josh Brolin meanwhile just eats that shit up and cackles
maniacally off to the side. At the outset of the film Brolin is introduced as a
DoD operative but it quickly becomes obvious his origin is of CIA descent. He
recruits FBI Agent (?) Emily Blunt after the exceptional initial scene of the
film; who is basically a license for the Brolin to do extralegal activities in
and around the United States. This is sort of a plot point in the movie but it’s
kind of insanely obvious so when Blunt and her partner eventually realize this
it falls flat since it’s so late in the film. This isn’t a huge issue with the
movie but it does make those characters seem a little more foolish instead of
just seeming idealistic.
The only other major flaw the film has is that presumably
everyone watching knows everything is fucked and that nothing good or happy can
come out of the film, such is the nature of Mexican Drug Cartel movies; however
that didn’t stop them from putting in a really weird scene where there’s a
brief interlude of presumed happiness which quickly aborts into something else
entirely. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the scene in question and I
really like the supporting scenes and how they tied it into the plot, but it
just kind of dragged a little bit too long; especially when you realize the
cause/effect right at the start of a ten minute sequence.
A point I haven’t really touched on too much so far is the
film’s acceptance and even staunch belief in American Imperialism in the
Western Hemisphere. This isn’t something that the film wants you to believe or
even suggests overtly, it simply is in the film and is almost mandatory for you
to understand the film. That being so it’s hard to say who exactly the
antagonist of the film is, Del Toro is basically just a gun for hire; though a
particularly menacing gun for hire. If this film was Traffic they would have included
politics in the whole proceeding, but politics are decidedly absent from this film
and anyone who actually understands American politics should be able to perceive
why. There is no clear difference between the parties at present when it comes
to Foreign Policy, and while this film is dealing with a matter closer to home
the construction of the film is very much in the vein of a foreign policy
matter; or at the very least a black ops matter.
There’s no elected officials in the film to begin with,
though it is directly mentioned that the order and organization of the task
force came from “on high” more or less. Those would be your typical villains,
but this movie really doesn’t have any standard antagonistic characters.
Antagonistic things happen and characters do things that would make them
obviously the villain in a lesser film; but it is abundantly clear that there
is no real, malicious intent on the part of any of the characters. Everyone is
just doing their part in a horribly corrupt system more or less, and the people
that question this are brought into line.
The victims, on the other hand, are very clear as we have a
few more weird scenes in the film that make this a bit more obvious. The only
people that really get fucked in the film are the Mexicans, sure Emily Blunt is
in peril sometimes but that leads to a breakdown of her sense of justice not
irreversible damage to her person. Emily Blunt is probably fine at the end of
the movie, hell she might wind up being Brolin’s best bud in the future who
knows. But we all know who gets the short end of the stick, because it sure as
hell isn’t the Americans.
Overall this was a fantastic movie and is either the 2nd
or 3rd best film I’ve seen all year alongside Mad Max and Mr.
Holmes. The unorthodox structure is incredibly appealing and I’m glad they were
able to work in enough of the more basic concepts to make it appeal to critics.
At the end of the day, while there is at least one (the dining room) scene
which is one of the best of all time, the film doesn’t really challenge you in
the end, it doesn’t leave you with this lingering sense of dread, regret, or
confusion. So while the film might technically be better than the Counselor it
isn’t as thought provoking or as incredibly difficult to reconcile. A clearer
portrayal of a similar message.
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