Film Review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
United States has spent decades meddling in the internal affairs of numerous other countries, with such interventions often resulting in things like mass bloodshed, wars, and genocide. However, Hollywood has, for understandable reasons, shied away from addressing these topics except when doing so could yield domestic political points or signal its armchair socialist virtues to the rest of the world. One of the rare productions that attempted to seriously address the darker aspects of American cross-border adventures was Sicario, the acclaimed 2015 thriller, which in 2018 received a sequel titled Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
Like its predecessor, Day of the Soldado deals with the War on Drugs—that is, the decades-long, endless, costly, often bloody, and largely unsuccessful efforts of the American government to stem the flow of drugs crossing the border into American streets. The new film additionally incorporates the War on Terror, which similarly drives the American government to expend endless blood and treasure without tangible results. The plot begins with an event that, at least in the eyes of Washington bureaucrats and politicians, links these two campaigns: a group of Islamist terrorists detonate bombs inside an American shopping mall, causing a massacre among innocent women and children. Subsequent investigations suggest that the terrorists entered the United States from abroad—specifically across the Mexican border—with the assistance of local narco cartels, using the same smuggling operations through which they supply the American market with drugs. For the US government, this is the final straw, prompting the decision to launch a covert operation aimed at destroying the Mexican cartels. The operation is placed under the command of the experienced operative Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who devises a plan for his team to kidnap Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the underage daughter of Carlos Reyes, one of Mexico’s leading drug lords. This crime would be attributed to a rival cartel, thereby triggering a war that would either wipe the cartels out or weaken them sufficiently so that the US government need not dirty its hands excessively. For the operation, Graver re-engages his old Mexican associate, Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro), a top-tier professional assassin and former lawyer who has a personal stake in the matter, given that Reyes had massacred his family. The operation proceeds smoothly until, as usual, things go catastrophically awry, leaving Alejandro and Isabela stranded alone in the desert. There, Alejandro must make some unpleasant decisions regarding the girl’s fate, partly considering his American superiors, who are keen to cover up the entire affair as quickly and “elegantly” as possible.
Compared to the first film, Day of the Soldado has replaced much of the cast and crew, with the most noticeable absence being that of the now highly acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve. Replacing him is Stefano Sollima, an Italian director whose body of work—dominated by acclaimed crime films and television series dedicated to the mafia underbelly of his homeland (such as Suburra)—makes him a rather solid choice. The praised composers of music and cinematography have also been replaced, though screenwriter Taylor Sheridan remains. His work on the new film can be said to be, despite an ostensibly more complex plot unfolding across far more countries and continents, much more compact and focused than the previous Sicario. The main reason for this is that events are no longer followed from the perspective of the naïve idealistic FBI agent portrayed by Emily Blunt in the earlier film; instead, Graver and Alejandro are already established characters, allowing the creators of Day of the Soldado to focus far more on the “how” and “why” rather than the “what”. Sollima, who had already established himself as a master of action sequences, lends his own authorial stamp to the film but also adds an unexpected humanistic dimension, primarily by portraying the entire tragic and bloody affair from the perspective of children—be they victims of the terrorist massacre or border youths whom cartels, promising them pie in the sky, turn into their own janissaries. The relatively unknown Elijah Rodriguez, who plays one such character, delivers a brilliant performance, far surpassing that of teenage star Isabela Moner as the spoilt mafia princess.
Unlike its predecessor, Day of the Soldado has not generated much enthusiasm among critics. The reason for this lies less in its screenplay shortcomings, particularly the extremely violent finale whose melodramatic elements momentarily disrupt the film’s overall realistic tone and character. Rather, the plot—though not so different from the previous film—has far more irked armchair socialist bien-pensants because, by coincidence, it lends propaganda points to the policies of today’s deeply unpopular American president, at least regarding the construction of the controversial wall on the Mexican border. On the other hand, Day of the Soldado is equally critical of US policy, at least that shaped by Washington mandarins like the characters portrayed by Matthew Modine and Catherine Keener, who, as in the case of the Iraq adventure, enthusiastically embark on cowboy escapades violating international law, only to display an unusual tendency to wash their hands of the entire affair when things become too bloody and complicated, leaving their personnel, allies, and innocent populations high and dry. For this reason, Day of the Soldado will compel many to serious reflection, which, in the context of today’s events, is a matter of mental hygiene for every viewer.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version was posted here.)
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