Sicario: Day of the Soldado

You know a movie can’t miss with these two! Benicio Del Toro, as mysterious operative Alejandro Gillick, and Josh Brolin, as federal agent Matt Graver, are back for another go around with the Mexican drug cartels.  The first ‘Sicario’ movie concentrated on the cartels, their influence over the  U.S. drug trade and the gritty anti-drug task force’s missions. This newest entry deals with those too, but the main focus is the exploitation of illegal immigrants who try to cross the border to seek a better life. It also touches on how children are drawn into and affected by gang activity.  The movie starts with a horrific scene of three Muslim extremists who blow up a super market, including a mom who unsuccessfully tries to protect her daughter.  I am not fond of movies that harm kids; although I understand that the point is to depict the horror terrorism inflicts.  Still, it was not easy to watch this scene and I found myself closing my eyes.  The main plot driver is the U.S. government officials’, including the Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine), belief that the terrorists must have entered our country from Mexico; and that starting a war between the cartels will help stop this from happening, as well as getting the cartels taking each other out.  Graver’s  character is given carte blanche to do what ever he sees as necessary.  He recruits Gillick with the promise that he will be able to have his revenge on the head of the cartel who actually ordered the murder of his family (In the first movie. he got revenge on the man directly responsible for the murders).  To start the cartel war, the daughter of this cartel head is kidnapped.  Things do not go according to plan, of course, and when the government learns that the terrorists were actually homegrown, they decide to abort the mission.  The civilian official controlling the mission (Catherine Keener) decides that the girl and Gillick know too much, and must be eliminated along with anyone else involved.  She coldly tells Graver, sorry, but they are to become collateral damage.  As you probably suspect, Gillick is not so easy to get rid of.  How that all plays out is complex, violent and bloody; but: no spoilers! The move is bloody and violent throughout, this is not a movie for the squeamish!  I do feel that it gives an honest and heartbreaking look at how terribly these poor immigrants are taken advange of and abused.  Elijah Rodriguez gives an intriguing performance as an innocent school  boy who is lured by the easy money to be made as a coyote and whose fate is unknown (but suspected) by the end of the movie.  Beneath all the harsh action, this film asks us to take a hard look at the immigration problem while offering no solutions. Of course, that’s not the movie’s goal,, and there aren’t any easy answers anyway.  I do like the way that both main characters are shown to ultimitely have a heart, and the end definitely screams sequel!  Even though this is not my kind of movie, I found myself drawn in by Del Toro’s character.  I would probably watch the next inevitable installment.