I don't recall ever posting this review here. Perhaps it'll help put the conversation back on track. It resonates with some of the things said, so I can at least claim consistency of opinion over 4 months.
Sicario
Kate Macer: What's the objective?
Matt Graver: To dramatically overreact.
Possibly, a day after British military advisors are sent to the Baltic States, in a fuzzy-logical response to Russian intervention into the Syrian War, Graver's statement summarises modern geopolitical attitudes. Sicario feels like a political thriller wrapped up in the furs and skins of a crime movie; pretending to be less than it actually is. Hence, it hides a character, that reminded me more of Keyser Soze than any since the devil last appeared. The name of the movie is explained in the first frames. The explanation gripped me so that I didn't want to disregard it as bombastic nomenclature. My suspicion that this would turn to be a modern reenactment of the Star Chamber was off the mark but in the right neighbourhood.
On the literary side, the film trod the same prints in the sand as James Crumley's immense "Mexican Tree Duck" and "Bordersnakes". Ostensible detective stories whose protagonists still have Vietnam in their blurred sights, and a proficiency with automatic weapons (tanks sometimes). The US-Mexican border is an ambiguous line, and only the rules of engagement change, depending on which side of the line you are. Everyone feels out of their depth. Emily Blunt's role here is to play more the helpless FBI agent, than the helpless girl; her toughness and capability to act in a dangerous world is designed to illustrate that the borderland she is attracted into, is another level of violence altogether. The FBI as opposed to the CIA; the regular army as opposed to special forces; being adept with a sidearm as opposed to being adept with your fists; the law versus international expediency; but mostly America as opposed to Mexico.
As I mentioned, the film had its greatest impact as a political tone piece. At the point that the drugs war starts to threaten the integrity of Homeland Security, the CIA are asked to assert control and start to escalate the response. A military strategy in the hands of the CIA appears to be signed off by government. Rather than being shackled by standing orders and international laws, the attitude seems to be that the people with the leashes leave the room or turn their backs, in case they are compromised by the actions they have sanctioned. It implies that there are no rules, and those put in charge certainly act as if that is what they infer. The military philosophy is to use the correct weapon for the job. Sicario is a movie about those weapons.
"Enemy" and it's heavy atmosphere of paranoia, was an excellent warm up for Sicario. Juarez is painted as a malignant cancer on the skin of the United States. The surgeons want to use 50 caliber machine guns to operate on it.