“You're asking me how a watch is made. For now just keep your eye on the time.”*
The American/Mexican borderland hinges on contradictions. One can live on the surface of the land, only skimming along reality — casting eyes away from that which screams to be heard and witnessed. It only takes the right sideways glance, the correct angle of sunlight, to catch sight of the dirtier, messier world that operates just below society’s superficial gaze.
In the film Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve, we are thrust below the surface — forced to gaze below that easy-going semblance of order and normalcy. Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is an idealistic young FBI agent who is recruited to join an inter-agency task force combating drug cartel movement along the Mexico border. The man doing the recruiting (portrayed by Josh Brolin) tells her little of what the team will be up to, other than flying to El Paso. Her hackles are immediately raised as she is introduced to a mysterious “consultant” named Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), who says little to nothing regarding his personal credentials or objective.
The action begins immediately, and Kate finds herself tripping along within a moral quagmire. The numerous men swirling around her operate outside federal jurisdiction or any sense of lawful procedures. Borders are crossed, literally and figuratively — doors are kicked in, shots are fired, and informants savagely interrogated in locked rooms. We are kept in the dark as much as Kate as to the end goal of the team’s mission. She is a cog in their machine, and she will serve her purpose no matter if she wishes it or not. It’s frightening how easily these men create a situation in which Kate, a woman amidst them, has no choice. Viewers see her face, along with the faces of those that stand in the way of the team’s end goal, and realize how little agency so many have in the violent drug war taking place on the border. It steamrolls anyone who might object or find fault with the brutal, dehumanizing methods employed by those who fight for either side. Or it will find some use for them, and then they will be discarded with no regard whatsoever for life or limb or conscience.
This film is structured like a horror story, the action and sense of dread keep mounting. And it all is leading towards that violent, foregone conclusion that Kate hastily begins to piece together and realizes fully her impotence to stop. Violence begets violence, and the order we believe we are existing in is as flimsy as a chainlink fence.
*dialogue from the film
