by Ed Travis
I didn’t think a drug trade thriller could still shock me.
We’ve been collectively dragged through the mud of the failed war on drugs for years now in our popular entertainment. I left the theater after seeing Traffic with my father feeling dirty and raw. But with fearless and thrilling programming like The Wire and Breaking Bad (not to mention Sean Penn interviews) exposing the depravity and wild west lawlessness of the drug trade, a movie like Sicario must come prepared to offer something special for its commentary on drug trafficking (or even its entertainment value) to land. It isn’t easy to make us feel dirty anymore because deep down we all know that the war on drugs is an abject failure. There’s a deep ambiguity about what to do about it, and perhaps a reticence to truly believe it in our core. After all, we’ve lost virtually every war we’ve fought during many of our lifetimes. What’s left of America’s greatness besides, at the very least, being tough on crime, right? It’s our laws, our system of justice that makes us great. Right?
Emily Blunt’s Kate Macer acts as our river guide in this film, leading us ever deeper into the heart of darkness. Only she’s a blind guide, herself learning the hard lessons we audience members are learning right along with us. The role has been criticised as being nothing more than a typical “audience avatar”, but Macer is well fleshed out, having only been given the chance to go down the river because of her stellar work as a local law enforcer fighting the good fight. A major bust she leads the charge on uncovers a truly grisly scene of dozens of dead bodies inside the drywall of a suburban Arizona home. Cartel activity has broken well past the Mexican border right into America’s heartland. And when your drug cartel action thriller STARTS with dozens of corpses, it can only get darker from there.
Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) appear in Kate’s life after this explosive introduction, offering her a clandestine opportunity to go after the “real” men who caused the grisly scene. She agrees, but is kept entirely in the dark as their operations become increasingly less “by the book”, causing Kate great anxiety as a person who values and upholds her code. The shifting of goalposts and moral mile markers becomes a strong theme running throughout Sicario, as the brutal reality of cartel rule is laid bare through thrilling set pieces peppered throughout the film. Taking place over only a matter of days, Graver and Alejandro swing wildly from being heroic soldiers and blunt truth tellers to villainous monsters, and back again, as they attempt to “disrupt the system” and make some real progress. But progress towards what? Winning the drug war? No… the impossibility of that goal is something our main characters all seem to agree on, making Sicario a post-drug war tale.
Just how compromised our moral compass has become regarding the drug war is the driving mystery of Sicario, and I won’t spoil its revelations here. But needless to say in light of all the film’s accolades, Brolin and Del Toro’s characters are thrilling to get to know, with the revelations of who their characters are and what they’re up to being doled out to us masterfully and shockingly.
Behind the camera Sicario is also an embarrassment of riches. Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) infuses the film with an incredible array of visuals bolstered by famed cinematographer Roger Deakins. The film was captured using digital photography and multiple sequences are given life through camera work alone. There’s a tunnel sequence filmed almost entirely using night and thermal vision which is visually breathtaking but also forces us as an audience into the same breathless and lightless space our characters are plunging into. It’s claustrophobic and beautiful simultaneously. Then there’s the US-Mexico border as depicted by Villeneuve and Deakins: as stunning as it is harsh and foreboding. The long, straight wall of the border serves as a visual representation of two different worlds, even as the story written by Taylor Sheridan blurs that very same line. Sheridan’s work here is special, infusing as much excitement and suspense as possible into an equally thoughtful and brutally honest political exploration. Add to all these wonders a thumping, driving, endlessly percussive score from composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and there’s no doubt about it: Sicario is one of the best films of 2015.
The darkness our characters emerge from after leaving that tunnel forever changes Kate, and leaves the audience agape. It also happens to be just another day for Alejandro and Graver. Alejandro’s pronouncement to Kate by the end sums the film up fantastically “You are not a wolf. And this is a land of wolves now.”
Sicario is perhaps first and foremost a thrilling action adventure infused with a sense of mystery: Who are Graver and Alejandro, and how can their shady dealings possibly be sanctioned by our tried and true U.S. government? But beneath the thrills and the visual artistry, the film refuses to pull back from asking hard questions about our willingness to accept that our home is corrupted, that we are indeed a land of wolves. It’s entertainment with a prophetic bent to it, and it’s a brand of storytelling that there’s always room for.
The Package
Sicario is absolutely stunning from a visual perspective. Roger Deakins is cinematographic royalty, and under Villeneuve’s direction this film becomes something to behold. Blistering southwestern landscapes, visceral action, and actors whose performances are captured in such a way as to elevate the material… this film requires full high definition viewing. And the Blu-ray does not disappoint.
As far as bonus features go, there are four effective if not earth shattering featurettes. The featurette on the visual design helped deepen my appreciation for the visuals noted above, and it was nice to see the score highlighted with a brief featurette as well. It would have been wonderful to have a commentary track here from Villeneuve or Sheridan or both. And any kind of extra material that was left on the cutting room floor would have been nice to see as well. This film could easily go on to win a number of awards this season and will likely remain in the popular consciousness after many other prestige films of 2015 have faded into memory, so perhaps future releases of this title could include more in the way of bonus features. But this singular film needs to be seen in high definition, and demands to be seen as soon as possible, so I highly recommend this Blu-ray release.
Stepping Into Darkness: The Visual Design of Sicario Blunt, Brolin and Benicio: Portraying the Characters of Sicario A Pulse from the Desert: The Score of Sicario
Battle Zone: The Origins of Sicario
And I’m Out.
Sicario hit Blu-ray & DVD on January 5th from Lionsgate.