Everyone uses everyone

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2018)

The score of this film consists of threatening hums and rumbles, underscoring the bleakness that pervades Sicario. In an effort to get at a cartel jefe, everyone uses everyone. A Medellín operative uses US agents to get the man who killed his family. US agents use and innocent FBI agent to legitimize a completely illegitimate operation. Everyone uses everyone in some way.
The drama (there is no action, except killings after killings to illustrate the depravity of the situation, on all sides, and even those with no side) stays tense throughout the film. No secrets are kept from the viewer as the main characters slowly learn what is really happening, very much in the style of Hitchcock thrillers, where the tension never relied on viewer ignorance beyond any ignorance of the characters.
It's a depressing film, but seems only too believable. When the fight for 'good' stoops to the same low level as 'evil,' everything just seems crass and brutish and disgusting. No wonder the heroine is about the only major character a viewer can identify with. She's like a babe in arms thrown to the wolves, as Benicio del Toro remarks towards the end of the film. Strangely, although she cannot kill him, she's the only character with any courage in this film, even though she signs off an affidavit legitimizing the whole affair with a gun at her throat.
The film made me mostly just shudder while watching it. If you're inclined to think that most drugs should be legitimized (like alcohol was after the prohibition), this film will do about the best possible to support your view. Cigarettes and alcohol kill a lot of people, but not with as much collateral damage.