Sicario makes you believe that you’re right there on the job with the United States’ top counter-narcotics operatives. But what you’ll eventually learn is that the world they occupy is not necessarily one you want to live in.
That’s what makes the veiwer’s nerves tingle throughout every scene. That, and the fact that the movie begins with a one-two-three punch in the opening scene that will rip your face off. You’re going to be on edge, because anything can happen, and it will to FBI agent Kate, played by Emily Blunt.
Blunt in “Sicario.”
Denis Villeneuve captures the verisimilitude of national security operations right on-the nose. In this case, that’s an excellent thing. This movie is a natural and modern inheritor to the throne that Traffic stood on. The tone and realism echoes movies such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zero Dark Thirty in depicting the actual way thing get done in the world.
It’s often the casual, throwaway moments that bring a movie into full focus and defines it as a great film. In Sicario, I love the way the team coalesces. Obfuscation and opaque-ness are captured precisely. The joint task force is CIA-led, by men who call themselves Pentagon contractors. One is an agent, the other is nothing like what he seems to be. At first, the work is largely done by the Pentagon. Our leads’ muscle is a team of Delta Force operators with two old-school Texas U.S. Marshals in cowboy hats to wrap it all up. The scene where all of these men meet is easy and enticing. It plays directly into the feeling that the movie will slowly unfold like a flower, only showing pieces of itself at first. That’s a testament to the script written by Taylor Sheridan.
Sheridan is a successful television actor (most recently on Sons of Anarchy) who certainly nailed his jump into screenwriting. Even more interesting from an industry perspective is how fast the movie was made. According to this article, Sheridan wrote the script in four months and he was shooting through Thunder Road four months later. Unbelievable, and although definitely an outlier, an inspiration.
The cinematography from Roger Deakins is both vital and at times, formal and beautiful. The long shot of a flickering shadow of a plane in the bottom right-hand corner is sublime. The cinematography matches the viewer’s experience. It is slow-moving, fits and hand-in-hand with the story unfolding. Another particularly notable scene is shot inside a drug tunnel. The night-vision sequences are very well formed and executed.
People complain about the tangent at the end of Sicario. In terms of plotting, the movie forms itself into a funnel towards the third act, aimed directly at Benicio Del Toro’s “Alejandro” character. And much like a real funnel, the transformation seems quite sudden. The third act is sort of a different movie, but also not. I love that. In the beginning, the filmmaking pushes you away from Benicio. At least Villeneuve makes it very difficult to see through his eyes. But eventually one realizes it’s been about him the whole time. Upon a second viewing, it’s easier to see. The movie constantly references Benicio’s importance, but it can be difficult to pick up. Whenever Josh Brolin’s Graver checks in with Benicio during the first two acts, it’s usually a premonition about their final objective: Which is what will happen in the third act.
Who’s the focus on here?
(Beware: Spoiler Section and my own Questions below)
While the screenplay is almost perfectly logical, there are a few broken chains around the aforementioned third act turn. How does the drunkard cop, Silvio, picking up the drugs, knows exactly who Benicio is? Because Alejandro is such a well known figure? Or maybe its Benicio’s accent?
But what I really don’t get is why the tunnel is necessary to get Benicio over the border. They are the CIA. They have already been in Mexico once without their cars checked. Benicio could have just stepped off the prisoner transport and waited in Mexico for Manuel Diaz to return from the States and visit his boss.
(Spoilers Over)
All of the other Thriller Thursday posts here:
WAGES OF FEAR
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
SICARIO