‘Sicario’ is a 2015 Crime Thriller with an overarching narrative centered around the war on drugs with an emphasis on US and Mexican border trafficking. From these the film splits into 3 connected sub-plots. Kate, Alejandro and Silvia. Although the stories are all intertwined the real connections are thematically. All stories show the dehumanization of war and in the inefficiencies this particular war has. Of course spoiler warning.

Lets begin with Kate (played by Emily Blunt). An FBI agent who is recruited to be part of an inter agency task force with the goal of stopping a ruthless drug lord. Before that happens however she served in a local drug task force targeting a drug dealer in the states. Her first raid looks like a major success. The FBI agents appear to be doing everything right. They take the criminals into custody and find the bodies of their victims with no casualties. It looks like its going to be a total victory and then… there’s the explosion.

In most films there’s a sense of right and of wrong, in this early in a film good things usually happen to good people. This makes the moral guide by which to follow the film. Right away in this film, we see that things happen to people. It doesn’t matter if they’re good, bad or somewhere in between.

After that the turn into someone excited about stopping the cartel “Do we get an opportunity at the man responsible for today?”. Into an eventually drained and defeated agent. After being having seen the events it should come to no surprise that she is defeated in the end. She witnesses horrible events, she is forced to kill and this happens right on her first day. After that she is manipulated and lied to.

Kate “you used me as bait”

Matt “You used yourself as bait”

Seduced by someone who then tries to and almost succeeds in killing her. Then she is told she is not an essential part of the team.

On her final raid she is left behind and stumbles upon Alejandro. Someone who acted like a mentor to her throughout the film betraying everything the had been working towards before he shoots her. Whats interesting is you can see how breaking through interesting techniques employed by director; Dennis Villeneuve.

She picks up smoking on her first day “Can I have one of those?” and after that she whenever she has to deal with a stressful moment she is seen smoking to deal with the stress. She picks up smoking as a vice. However in her final scene she is smoking without having experienced a stressful moment beforehand. This vice she took up to deal with stress is now a recreation. She does it as a hobby.

The colour of her T-shirt is also of some signifigence. At the beginning she is shown wearing a lighter blue shirt and later in a washed out grey shirt.

Kate slowly deteriorates until at the end she is someone who appears less than human. That is the toll the mission has taken on her. She severed a relationship that was important to her (With Daniel Kaluuyas’ character). I say that she becomes less than human because she breaks her moral guidelines. The time she spent with the inter agency task force has shown her above all else that what acts that most people view as wrong morally may be necessary to achieve what most people view as morally right. Things like torture and manipulation we have already touched on with Kate; who sees all of this because of that it breaks her. Kate shows the steady process of dehumanization. She starts out ambitious and turns into someone utterly defeated and damaged.

When looking at the character of Alejandro he tells us a story of redemption. Before the film even begins we learn his family have been murdered by the Cartel. Upon his introduction hr has been beaten down emotionally. However as the film continues, we see his path of Vengeance began before his families death. His family was taken from him so hr took the family of the man who took everything from him. However this begs the question? What can satisfy redemption after having everything taken from you? According to this film the answer is nothing. This is a film about good people doing bad things and crossing the line that shouldn’t be crossed. Alejandro is the person who crosses this line the most throughout. You never see Matt Graver angry through interrogations and you never see Kate during these events.He is essentially, a contract mercenary. The DEA hires him so he can do these terrible acts towards a greater good. However these acts have taken a toll on Alejandro by the time he gets his revenge. He should be a redeemed person. He has killed the man who has stripped him to nothing. Yet after killing him nothing important happens. It Always was an always will be . After he kills the family he tells Kate

“you remind me of the daughter that they took from me”.

Despite him trying to get justice for his family. They are still present in his mind, Moreover he is still doing what he has always done. He goes to Kate to obtain an illegal signature. He leaves the same man as he was at the beginning.

The idea of a failed redemption is also clear with the character of Silvio. Silvio is someone with an interesting past. He was part of the Mexican State Police. A group that has clearly been established as corrupt, who work for the Cartels. As we find out Silvia does run drugs for the cartel, what is interesting is that the film doesn’t paint him in a negative light. Instead it paints what he does in a negative light. This leads the viewers to be able to form their own opinions on Silvio as a person.

Personally I think that he is a good person who is forced to do bad things. Just like the inter agency task force. His character echoes one of the most important themes of the entire film. He’s used to tie the main story which goes along with the theme of the film, which is that the War On Drugs simply does not help. After spending the entire film rooting for the unique group of heroes, wanting them to succeed and having this idea in our own heads that if they do it will help the situation somewhat.

However after our characters succeed it cuts to Silvios son playing soccer and there are gunshots in the distance. We see his wife look off to her house with worry on her face. Nothing has changed, at least there has been no positive change. Only consequences.

This is a film that takes an anti-war stance but does it in a somewhat unconventional way. It simply shows the consequences of the drugs and the war on drugs. Simply put they aren’t good.

We see the loss of life and the dehumanization of people in the effort to curb the cartels yet we see no real victories. A drug lord has been killed but another will be take his place, a state police officer has been killed but we can see how the cartel will just use another in his place.

Like so many of Villeneuves films ‘Sicario’ doesn’t tell you how to feel. Instead it presents you with a series of events and lets you figure out the feelings yourself. It asks you a moral question and its up to you to to answer it, because of that I’m sure people are going to have a lot of very unique views and interpretations of the film.

I’d love to hear yours!

I’m also looking forward to ‘Soldado‘