After seeing Sicario, I can understand why studios hired Denis Villeneuve, who has a fairly optimistic body of work in even the most solemn circumstances such as civil war (Incendies), manslaughter (Maelstrom), pedophilia (Prisoners), alien invasion (Arrival) and a biologically based fascist society (Enemy), to direct Blade Runner 2049, which was supposed to be the sequel to a bleak dystopian world, but ended up being a hopeful sequel in the midst of the most systematic oppression. If I did not know that Villeneuve directed it, I would never have recognized Sicario as his work although the soundtrack and overhead drone shots are reminiscent of his other films. He is the only reason that I watched this film, and it is his bleakest work to date. It was not a pleasure to watch.
I’m not a fan of drug crime dramas/thrillers, and Sicario fits that bill. While it initially seems to conform to expectations, Kate, played by Edge of Tomorrow’s Emily Blunt, a young, promising FBI agent is recruited to join an elite multi-government agency force led by Josh Brolin to thwart a Mexican drug cartel that has moved its operations over the border, it soon subverts those expectations and becomes something more sinister.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
Sicario is Enemy minus Arrival. Instead of being respected and becoming an integral part of the team, Kate initially volunteers, but does not realize that this isn’t the kind of film where the plucky, young woman whom the audience is supposed to empathize with can do more than anyone else and takes the lead in successfully fighting evil, but she is being exploited and stripped of everything that she has, including her identity, a process that happened more violently and involuntarily to Alejandro, played by the superb, hot Benicio Del Toro, a Columbian, soft-spoken, mysterious figure who used to be a lawyer, and perhaps is the titular character and actual focus of this film.
The opening title defines Sicario as Zealots who hunted the Romans, but in Mexico, it is the word used for hitmen. The Zealots were a relatively young Jewish religious political movement that sought liberation by violence much to the consternation of the Romans and the Jewish religious establishment whose goal was survival. The Zealots would target fellow Jewish people whom they deemed as collaborating with the invaders. They are blamed for the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which some Christians believe that Jesus predicted. A couple of apostles were possibly zealots, some of which later reversed their position on armed resistance in favor of spiritual resistance to Empire or theoretically led to Jesus’ betrayal. Zealots are people who see the Jewish establishment as inadequate, and the Sicarii are their most violent members who do not find some new, peaceful approach like Jesus as appealing.
There is also an intentional, analogous parallel between Mexico, Arizona and Texas and Roman occupied Judea. The Romans are equated with the Mexican drug cartel, but I think that the invasion can be a less literal concept, the violation and destruction of normal life and suddenly becoming aware of your lack of control and vulnerability. All of Villeneuve’s films have a Christian undertone whether or not he intends it. The underlying question of Sicario is how do you live after an invasion? Do you collaborate with the invaders like the dirty cops/inadequate fathers in Mexico and Phoenix? Do you violently resist them like the US government that authorizes a black ops led by other government officials and an assassin, which only makes you become like the Romans that you hated? Or do you become a person like Kate who rejects both, which destroys her life as she knew it? It is only in the last half hour that you realize that Kate is not the main focus of the film, but the entry point to a story that unfolded long before the film started.
Alejandro’s presence gradually grows until he takes center stage, which is parallel to the Zealots’ power in Judea until it led to complete occupation of Jerusalem, which leads to the suffering of its inhabitants, people like Kate. From the beginning of Sicario, Kate is thrown off balance. She thinks that she is solving one case or has dodged a literal bullet or escaped an explosion, but gets sucked into increasingly dire threats until she is completely unmoored without ever achieving any semblance of achievement. Instead of embracing the paradigm offered by those in authority, to side with the Sicario and continue to engage in illegal activities, she rejects it and returns to her origins, the law, and tries to stop Alejandro. Side note: I would definitely have never volunteered to join some shady outfit, but in the unlikely event that I did because I thought that it was a promotion or a compliment, if one of the shady dudes saved me from strangulation in my own home and mortification as a female law enforcement officer that I got duped in such a massive way, I think that may be the only circumstance that would make me inclined to look the other way so the fact that Kate clings to her ideals immediately thereafter shocked me, and she continues to do so after Alejandro strips her of the last vestige of her identity.
Alejandro is a former lawyer gutted by the pain of occupation whose only objective is revenge and destruction even if it makes him into a person whom his family would not recognize or approve of, even when he recognizes that he has become the very thing that he hates and is willing to kill someone like Kate, who reminds him of his daughter, to continue his vendetta. If Alejandro is a potential ally to the US in the war on drugs, he is equally a potential threat to the US and its ideals as embodied by Kate and her partner, another former attorney, Reggie, played by Get Out and Black Panther’s Reggie Wayne. He is a wolf initially in sheep’s clothing like all the other government officials complicit in black ops. He cautions Kate, “You should move to a small town, somewhere the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now.”
Villeneuve cleverly robs us of our clichés. He punctures our desire of a meritocracy where outsiders like women such as Kate or black men like Reggie will be treated as equals and given authority to make decisions or change the establishment from the inside out. They are robbed of any real authority, become victims and forced to become accomplices with the blessing of the very organizations that they had faith in. The veneer of the law betrayed them. He also strips us of our enjoyment of vengeance when Alejandro kills and threatens people who are not physical threats, which explains why Sicario has brief vignettes depicting family life in the land of wolves before and after Alejandro succeeds in his mission. Alejandro constantly shows concern for the location of his allies’ children, but when his victims mention their children, he sees that father’s pain as a useful tool in the mission to exploit with no thought given to the children’s actual fate, which is revealed at the end of the film. The land of wolves is a war zone.
If you abdicate your responsibility as a lawyer, then you are a wolf. If you are not a wolf, you are a sheep. Sicario leaves Kate and the audience with the bleak realization that despite her badge, her gun and her training, she is powerless, not a law enforcer, but a lost sheep. She still makes the decision not to take revenge against Alejandro and follow the law. It left me with the most impotent, sour taste in my mouth, but I think that Villeneuve is challenging us to rethink how we view power and authority with answering the implicit question, what should Kate do now? Should she follow Alejandro’s advice or Jesus’ in Luke 10:3, “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” The law should not be equated with institutions. The power of the law lies in our desire for justice, for someone to say on another’s behalf, “This is wrong.” Power does not lie in guns, thermal camera, surveillance footage, drones or men, all tools like Babel for men to pretend as if they are like God because they feel omniscient, but real power lies in a higher authority, a good shepherd, a redeemer, and the sheep recognize His voice. Real power is to offer peace, not war.
Sicario only implies this hopeful possibility because Kate definitely rejected the path of wolves, but it does not mean that she will see her new designation with the sheep as a source of power instead of a stigma or a stain. She already began to slide into self-medicating with nicotine and thwarted one-night stands, which may not be independently considered a flaw, but seems to be uncharacteristic of her character and occurs soon after a trauma so it seems to be an unhealthy way of coping. She may continue to go down a self-destructive path, but it is not the only option. Villeneuve admonishes us to reject the shame of victimization, the vulnerability of being the only one in the room with good intentions, the insecurity of human nature. These can be strengths if we learn that we should not be contrite for being weak, being capable of hurt or deceived. Strength is embracing pain and protecting others by trying to enforce the law instead of succeeding at hurting others. The only good father may be the woman without a child. Jesus was always a fan of a woman with a past.