Euphemism-free analysis of the ethical and psychological aspects of Hollywood films.
Sicario (2015)
Crime/Thriller
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sicario_2015/
Starring:
Emily Blunt
Benicio Del Toro
Josh Brolin
Brief Plot Overview From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicario_(2015_film)
The film follows a principled FBI agent who is enlisted by a government task force to bring down the leader of a powerful and brutal Mexican drug cartel.
My Brief Plot Overview Without Euphemisms:
The film follows a naive, misguided order-follower who chooses to join a larger group of violent, extortion funded psychopaths, in an attempt to murder a person that runs a drug business, so that the Cocaine Import Agency can eliminate competition and consolidate that particular business.
Themes And Psychological Aspects From The Film
1. Authoritarianism portrayed as legitimate and necessary (This is diametrically opposed to reality)
2. Attempting to violently control what people put in their bodies as good and necessary (This is actually wrong, harmful, and immoral)
3. Violent individuals with badges as the only people who should have guns (In reality, guns are self-defense tools and people should be free to have them)
4. It’s ok for violent individuals with badges to steal money at gunpoint. (Stealing is never OK.)
5. Medical Mafia/chemical cocktail propaganda (They somehow managed to squeeze in a pro-vaccine clip)
6. Imaginary, violently-controlled lines called “national borders” as legitimate. (In reality, they’re immoral because they’re involuntary and enforced by violence)
Let’s start with the myriad violent authoritarian groups involved in the plot. FBI, CIA, Military, State Police, and City Police. Remarkably, I didn’t see any DEA involved. It’s possible I missed it, but I’m pretty sure no DEA was involved in any of the highly immoral activities in this film.
The main character, a naive, misguided, order-following Phoenix FBI agent played by Emily Blunt, joins a multi-authoritarian drug task force.
Two members of this violent cult force, although she doesn’t initially know it, are Cocaine Import Agency mercenaries, played by Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.
The CIA mercs lie to her and say that the first mission is in El Paso, Texas, but it ends up being in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The purpose of the mission is to kidnap a high ranking member of a drug supply organization.
Once the kidnapping is complete, the group of violent thugs in uniforms, which includes members of various government cult organizations like the CIA, Special Forces, and FBI, execute multiple people on the violently-enforced imaginary line known as the US-Mexico border crossing.
Blunt’s character is angered because she thinks this is wrong, simply based on the fact that they were:
A. Operating in “Mexican” territory
AND
B. Murdering people at the border crossing
This leads people watching the film to believe that yes, it’s wrong for the FBI to do this “on foreign soil”, but that it's ok for this to happen on "US soil", all for some vague notion of "the greater good".
However, in objective reality, these actions are wrong at any place in the world. Not only that, but the very existence of these extortion-funded mercenaries, who are violently suppressing people from exchanging and using products, is wrong to begin with.
The kidnapped person is then taken to an extortion-funded facility, where he is tortured into giving up information on where the drug company he works for transports its product across the imaginary and immoral US-Mexico “border”, through an underground tunnel.
The gang of mercenaries then proceeds to attack the financial resources of the drug company (cartel). They go to a bank in Phoenix and spot a girl who is making deposits and finger her as a willing participant in the so-called illicit drug business. They then proceed to violently attack her and her male partner. The bank manager then proceeds to agree with the badge-toting thugs to freeze the financial assets of the top member of the drug business.
When Blunt’s character presses the CIA mercs to arrest the owner of that particular bank account, she is told not to. The reason given is that they’re trying to “cause chaos” so that the drug business associate in question (the one in Phoenix) will be called back to “Mexico” by the head honcho of the enterprise. This will then lead the extortion funded mercs to the head of the drug business, thus giving them the opportunity to murder him.
Finally, once the drug business associate leaves Phoenix and retreats to “Mexico” to meet his boss, the group of extortion-funded thugs, including CIA, FBI, and Special Forces, go through the tunnel they had learned of previously from the kidnapped member of the drug business.
While going through the tunnel into “Mexico”, the gang murders various people in order to clear the way. Blunt’s character is the only one to get to the end of the tunnel, with one exception.
Benicio Del Toro’s character gets through first and holds a badge-toting “Mexican” thug at gunpoint. Reason being, the extortion-funded “Mexican Police” gang member was loading a car full of drugs. Blunt’s character then points her gun at CIA stooge Del Toro, who subsequently shoots Blunt. So much for being on the same “team”, huh?
When Blunt gets back to the “US side”, she punches the CIA stooge (played by Brolin). He then beats her and, after she calms down, goes on to explain what the overall “mission” has been all along.
The drug trade used to be more centralized, and easier for the CIA to control. His (and Del Toro’s) mission is to return to that more centralized model. (in other words, they’re violently eliminating competition)
So, on this note, I must say, there is some truth, at least on a very low, superficial level. Certain drug busts do happen in order to eliminate the CIA’s competition, while simultaneously providing propaganda to show the zombie TV-heads how much “progress” is being made in the “Drug War”.
Update to original post: It is not my intention to defend the drug cartels portrayed in this movie. Members of those cartels also engage in acts of violence, which I am obviously opposed to. All violence is evil, whether by a "police officer" or a "cartel boss". These cartels would not even exist if it weren't for prohibition to begin with.
Thanks for your time and attention!
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