Day of the Sicario

‘Sicario,’ Denis Villeneuve’s riveting 2015 “War on Drugs” political action-thriller featuring two morally ambiguous anti-heroes played by Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro who are not afraid to break a few eggs to make an omelet and a law-and-order FBI agent played by Emily Blunt, is a gritty and powerful meditation on how far our government can push the boundaries in the name of post-9/11 homeland security.  I loved that movie, so I was more than thrilled when I heard that the original did well enough commercially to warrant a sequel.

 

As if that’s even possible, ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Soldier)’ ramped it up even more than its predecessor.  In DotS, the main currency had switched from drugs (so yesterday) to the politically hot-button topic of people (as in illegal immigration).  This is the Trump Administration after all.  After a Kansas City supermarket was blown up by vest-wearing suicide bombers, the US government is quick to blame the Mexican cartels, since the cartels now engage in human trafficking and border agents nearly apprehended a muslim terrorist who tried to cross the Texas-Mexico border with the aid of the “underground railroad” run by the cartels before he managed to blow himself up.  Matt Graver (Brolin) and Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) are once again called upon by the government to conduct its dirty little secret war, this time to start one between rival drug cartels, allowing Uncle Sam to sit back and watch the ensuing fireworks while claiming “plausible deniability.”  And the icing on the cake is that there will be no meddling FBI agents raising ethical or legal questions this time.

 

Without the moderating influence of Emily Blunt’s FBI rep Kate Macer, I was expecting an unrestricted "weapons free" ROE that would make even the original seem tame.  But while the lean and tightly plotted DotS racked up an impressive body count to be sure, I was also pleasantly surprised by its restraint and heart.  Indeed, DotS showed us a softer side of the “sicario” (del Toro) as he wrestles with his conscience babysitting the rebellious teenage daughter of the very drug lord who ordered the deaths of his own family and set him on his dark path of vengeance in the first film (that family dinner scene at the end of 'Sicario' I will never forget).  Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that even Brolin’s Graver showed that he's "human" by doing the right thing in the end, orders be damned.

Grade: A-