Brutal slap in the face for bleeding-heart liberals and fanatical feminists.

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2016)

This film got a lot of hype before release due to the fact it looked like an action/thriller, smelled like and an action/thriller and was promoted as an action/thriller - with a female lead (Emily Blunt), heading the charge, guns blazing, against the Mexican cartel.
It turned out to be a somewhat different beast.
Feminist commentators went from exuberant exultation to exasperated angst. Why? Because the female lead wasn't a butt-kicking, cartel-cracking, bullet-bunting she-samurai from Lesbos. No, she turned out to be a vulnerable, easily-manipulated, surly, unstable, naive, idealistic and ultimately dominated tool, used as a means by intelligent, driven men to achieve their ends. And for this the filmmakers have copped considerable - and amusing - criticism from the fairer side of the commentariat.
In my opinion, what Sicario did was present a brutal, visceral, painfully-honest portrayal of the war on Mexican cartels (not drugs), and what sort of tactics - and people - are required to fight this war. Idealistic women do not make the cut.
The film is layered and extremely well constructed. A second and third viewing reveals dark and disturbing depths (such as the interrogation/male-rape), and at no stage does it present the 'good guys' as angels. More like demons on God's payroll.
The violence is overt - but not gratuitous. The language is realistic - but not crass. The characters are understated - but not boring. The story is small in scale - but large in the telling.
Del Toro was superb (as always) and Brolin was perfect as the CIA spook cum real-life troll. Blunt played a woman out-of-her-depth very believably, (as she was completely out of her depth in this film), but the real winner was the cinematography and the score. Both simple by design, but majestically rendered.
In summary, if you are a bleeding-heart progressive, who loves feminist ideals, and hates the USA cutting corners to fight its enemies, then I suggest you steer clear of this film .
As the final line in the movie to Blunt's character makes clear, "You will not survive here - you are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now". In other words, the US must take off the gloves if it wishes to protect its citizens and defeat enemies who recognize no borders, know no boundaries and engage in brutality in its most extreme forms. If this upsets you, then time to pack your bags and get the hell out of Dodge.