Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, ‘Sicario’ follows Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who has a set of rules that define her work. However, when she is made a part of a special task force, the question of playing morally with an enemy who does not care for rules falls apart. She finds herself working on a mission whose true purpose remains hidden from her and is with the people whose true nature she doesn’t quite understand. One of those people is Alejandro Gillick, a former prosecutor from Mexico who seems to have come a long way in his career. The 2015 crime drama film presents a gritty picture of the drug war in an intensely realistic manner.
The Story of Sicario is Fictional But Inspired by a Real Drug War
‘Sicario’ is an entirely fictional story written by Taylor Sheridan, who was inspired by real events to write the film. He revealed that he was fascinated with the ongoing drug war and how it impacted the US and Mexico while also receiving minimal coverage in the media. His primary interest was in the three-way war, with the cartels fighting with each other over control of the drug trade and the army being the third party forced to intervene due to the drastic nature of the situation. Moreover, there was the violence and all the stories that Sheridan heard about what was done by the cartel to people.
Sheridan could not understand how a person could do such things to another human being and how such stories could be so easily ignored by the media. It led the screenwriter to dive into research and come up with an idea that tackles the issue through the eyes of an innocent protagonist. Before he sat down to write the film, Sheridan did his fair share of research. Due to his already-established interest in the matter, he kept up with the relevant news, which made the research process easier for him. More than the drug cartels, he wanted to know the story from the perspective of the agencies tasked with cleaning up the streets and the challenges they had to face in all of it.
To understand the situation better, he spent some time in Arizona. Sheridan read up extensively on the matter. He spoke with people from Mexico who had experienced something similar in their real lives. At the same time, he also looked into the dynamics between different government agencies and how a task force would come together to handle the kind of situation we see in the movie. At the end of the day, the things that he wrote in the movie became a fictionalized version of real things and events. The violence, particularly, was the least made-up part of the movie, and a lot of things were picked from reality.
Another thing that makes the story realistic is the protagonist, Kate. Sheridan based the character on an actual woman whose job is similar to that of Josh Brolin’s character in the movie. He was fascinated by her expertise, knowledge, and experience in a field that people wouldn’t naturally expect her to be a part of. He noted that she had gone through an intense journey to earn the reputation she enjoys now, and he imbued Kate with the same qualities. The protagonist’s background and journey became important factors in how the events of the film would turn out, which is why, when Sheridan was asked to gender-swap the character, he refused to do it. He sees the entire film as “the deconstruction” of Kate’s character, with “the entire screenplay built to destroy her, emotionally.” And he couldn’t compromise on that by changing the very core of the character.
Denis Villeneuve and the Cast and Crew Enhanced the Realistic Tone of the Film
When Denis Villeneuve read the script, he was immediately taken by it and decided to direct it. Taylor Sheridan revealed that the director stuck pretty close to the draft that was given to him, and no major changes, so to speak, were made to the script. There were some things that they did rewrite, but it was majorly due to the technical aspects of filmmaking. Some parts were entirely skipped in service of the plot. Another major plus point of the film was Roger Deakins’ cinematography. His experience in documentary making and having been to war zones allowed him to present ‘Sicario’ from a similar point of view, which adds to the gritty tone of the film. As part of his research, he looked at the footage in the context of the Mexican drug cartels and captured the violence in the film from that point of view.
Meanwhile, the actors got the chance to meet with government agents who had worked on such cases and had a lot of knowledge to spare about how things move in such circumstances. The filmmakers didn’t stop at just getting their perspective and words of wisdom to inform the actors and other parts of the film. Ex-Navy Seals, Delta Force, and DEA agents were brought in front of the camera while filming the opening scene of the movie. All of this combined gives the film a deeply realistic touch that makes it even more compelling.
Alejandro Gillick is Fictional and Meant to Challenge the Audience’s Perception
One of the great things that Taylor Sheridan did with his screenplay was to play with the idea of who the protagonist and antagonist are in the film. The character that walks this fine line the most is Benicio del Toro’s Alejandro Gillick. The former prosecutor, who has now become a CIA-trained assassin, has his own agenda in the operation, and he doesn’t care who he has to kill to get the job done. The film keeps him mysterious while also earning sympathy points for him from the audience. In the end, however, his actions raise the question of whether he can actually be called one of the good guys.
When Benicio del Toro read the script, he was fascinated by the character and had a long conversation with the director to discuss who Alejandro really was and how best to depict him in the film. One of the things that the actor and director agreed upon was to cut down Alejandro’s lines. In the original script, Alejandro was more conversational, and a lot of his backstory comes from his talks with Emily Blunt’s character. However, Del Toro felt that he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would open up to people so easily, so a major chunk of dialogue was removed to keep the mystery around the character alive. To his credit, Del Toro did a phenomenal job of bringing forth the nuance of the character through his performance without relying on words, bringing a deeper sense of realism and authenticity to his character.
