Scenes from a never-ending war

Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya star in "Sicario." Image courtesy Lionsgate.

“Sicario” isn't a film for the faint of heart. It's a violent movie bombarded by gun shots and the corpses of victims killed simply for being in the exact wrong place at the perfectly wrong time. “Sicario” offers no easy answers to the problem, no hope for an end to the violence, and few heroes worth praising in the battle. It's also a tremendous feat of filmmaking, the kind of movie that literally causes one's heart to pound in fear, and it lingers in the mind and in chest after the final frame leaps to black and the heart rate finally slows down.

“Sicario” opens with a boom – an FBI SWAT team drives a truck through a broken down home in Chandler. Ariz.  – and never slows down from there. Headed by the very tough Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her partner Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya), the team discovers the home's walls are insulated by dead bodies, a discovery followed by an immense moment of violence. The raid was notable and brutal enough though to attract the attention of absurd government official Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who recruits Blunt, and eventually Kaluuya, to join a special task force for a few missions to Juarez, Mexico. Along with them is the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), who definitely has an agenda of his own.

Adding much more to that description ruins “Sicario's” ambiguity – a vital feature for a film steeped in intensity and confusion for the characters and the audience. Blunt and Kaluuya have little idea of what they've gotten themselves into, and it takes a long time for the audience to catch on as well. Viewers don't get lost in “Sicario's” machinations; rather, they get lost to all of the moving parts across both sides of the border through a complex script and repeated changes in viewpoints and even the imaging used to see the action.

Director Dennis Villeneuve uses the miasma and the audience's lack of grip on the circumstances to ramp up the film's intensity. “Sicario” feels much more like a thriller than a typical action film, and it goes out of its way to ensure that no character is ever safe. It's a dangerous war fought by dangerous people on both sides, and every bullet that pierces the air and every body found hanging underneath a bridge reinforces that point.

Yet all of the violence and shock shown through Blunt's eyes – she and Kaluuya are the closest thing the film has to a moral compass – is deemed as normal through the lenses of the supporting characters. Even the final scene contrasts the bloodshed with the locals' ability to brush off the chaos around them, continuing to play the game of ignorance and trying to find a life for themselves while knowing in the back of their mind that they could wind up as one of the victims in this war.

Or is it a war? The word is bandied about in real life and in the film, although Villeneuve and writer Taylor Sheridan don't quite see it in that scope, at least from the government's side of the situation. The drug trade is a major conflict, especially for the residents of Juarez, but “Sicario” shows it as an opportunity for the major players to make a profit or gain control of a country eaten alive by the drug trade. Elements of it scream corporate piracy, with the big organizations trying to kybosh the growth of the startups to seize or maintain dominance over the market. Business is business in “Sicario,” and that business is booming for the people willing to tangle with the devil.

Attempts at ruling over an industry this large and corrupt has consequences for those involved; any man or woman crazy enough to try has to lose his or her soul to make it work. Del Toro, Brolin and Blunt – all of whom are terrific – are at different stages of that process, learning exactly how much of their morals they are willing to cede to win their battles. In an engagement defined by Pyrrhic victories, it's up to the players to decide if they're actions are pure and true, and whether any definition of victory is worth cost to their humanity.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 121 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away

Target audience: Action stars and anyone interested in movies about border violence.

Take the whole family?: “Sicario” definitely earns that “R” rating thanks to copious amounts of violence.

Theater or Netflix?: Definitely see it in theaters if you can; it's one of those viewing experiences made better in a dark, isolated room.

Any chance for a few Academy Award nominations?: Depending on which Oscar tracker you visit, “Sicario” is on the periphery of the best picture race, alongside “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Love & Mercy,” although none of the actors are mentioned among contenders in their respective fields. Hopefully the film at least snags a nomination for cinematography; Roger Deakins' work is just tremendous, and he is listed as a contender on at least one predictor site.

Watch this as well?: The obvious comparison is “Traffic,” which covers the same subject through the butterfly effect method in vogue during the time. “Sicario” is the stronger film, but “Traffic” is still worth a watch.