ARTS & CULTURE
10 Obiter Dicta
SICARIO: A REVIEW
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anthony choi
The “War on Drugs” has faded into the
recesses of public consciousness since the turn of
the century, overtaken by the events of 9/11 and
the subsequent and ongoing events in the Middle
East. Nonetheless, we are occasionally reminded of
the former, through news reports such as the recent
Everyone’ is a bit less
clear as a moniker, but
still arguably seems to
refer to humans.
capture of Mexican drug lord and head of the Sinaloa
Cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, or through the
occasional crime movie or television show. Sicario is
one such movie, dropping viewers into a shadowy,
brutal, and sometimes extralegal war-zone that
rages along the southern border of the United States.
The film, however, is more than your typical “things
blow up for the sake of blowing up” sort of movie.
It seeks to make a larger point about the controversial morality of certain covert black-ops techniques,
whether the ends justify the means, the overall lack
of results and general futility of the drug war, and
its impact on individuals, communities, and governments alike. [Warning: spoilers ahead]
Sicario tells the fictional story, viewed from
the eyes of a low-ranking FBI agent called Kate
Macer (played by Emily Blunt), of a joint AmericanMexican campaign against a Mexican drug lord
responsible for numerous deaths north of the border.
The movie begins with a raid on a cartel house led
by Kate that revealed dozens of corpses of cartel
victims sealed within the buildings’ walls. While
further investigating the premises, however, two
police officers are killed by an improvised explosive device. Kate’s superiors subsequently recommend her for an interagency operation spearheaded
by the jovial yet mysterious Matt Graver (played
by Josh Brolin) and his equally mysterious partner,
Alejandro (played by Benicio del Toro). While Kate
accepts this assignment, she is kept largely in the
dark about the agencies involved, the real objectives behind the operation, and its legality. As she is
dragged along for the ride, Kate is appalled to discover the operation’s complete lack of regard for
procedure, legality, and ethics. Matt and Alejandro
casually beat, threaten, and waterboard prisoners
for information, all while operating in Mexican territory without jurisdiction. Kate also learns the real
objective of the operation—to restore a semblance of
order to the region by eliminating the Mexican drug
lord and handing power over to the ‘more amenable’
Columbian Medellin cartel (side note: such a typical CIA move). Indeed, as Matt cynically explains
(and reflecting the overall futility of the War on
Drugs), “[u]ntil someone finds a way to stop 20 percent of America putting this [expletive deleted] up
their nose, order is the best we can hope for.”
From the very beginning of the film all the
way to the end credits, Sicario maintains a heightened sense of tension and discomfort through the
combination of a well put-together script, amazing cinematography, a simple yet foreboding score,
and an unflinchingly upfront treatment of the subject matter. The performance by Benicio del Toro was
ê From imdb.com
particularly powerful. Staying in the background for
much of the movie, del Toro still manages to exude
a certain kind of magnetism in all the scenes he is
a part of without saying very much at all, keeping
viewers wary and on guard as to what his character’s true intentions are and where his allegiances lie.
And when the latter is finally revealed, all the little
details in del Toro’s performance—from his apparent ruthlessness when dealing with the cartel men
down to the dark pain that one sees partially hidden
in his character’s eyes—come together to unveil the
sheer brilliance of it all.
Ultimately, Sicario is as much a thriller as it is a
commentary on the moral ambiguities and futility of
the drug war. Indeed, it can almost be likened to be
“the Zero Dark Thirty for the War on Drugs,” with
both movies posing the deeply uncomfortable question to viewers as to whether these wars are, in the
words of veteran American foreign correspondent,
Sebastian Rotella, “turning us into the very monsters we are trying to defeat.”
Final Rating: 4/5 Stars